Stonyhurst 1884-1914: Portrait of an English Catholic School
By (Author) Henry Sire
Unicorn Publishing Group
Unicorn Publishing Group
10th June 2025
11th November 2024
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Education
Schools and pre-schools
History of education
History
Hardback
256
Width 215mm, Height 280mm
Stonyhurst 18841914 gives a full account of the Jesuit school Stonyhurst College during the years when it was at its height as the leading Catholic public school in England. The study is fully situated in the social history of the time, including the public school world itself. It describes school life, the academic standards of the time and the personalities who were responsible for them.
This was a time when Stonyhurst produced a colourful range of alumni, from an archduke, through a son of Oscar Wilde, five VCs and many famous Church figures, to the MI5 officer Frank Foley, who was responsible for saving 10,000 Jews from Nazi Germany.
The book substantiates the claim that Stonyhurst was a supremely effective institution, not merely keeping its position as the academic leader of the Catholic schools but holding to a distinctive religious system of education and providing the driving force for a flourishing Jesuit mission in England.
Henry Sire was born in Barcelona, of a family of French ancestry. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and at Exeter College, Oxford, where he took a degree in Modern History. He has previously published five books of history and biography, besides articles and contributions to symposia. He currently lives in London.