Piggott, Jan. (2008) Dulwich College: A History. Reviewed by Laurence Raw, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey

Piggott, Jan. (2008) Dulwich College: A History. Dulwich, UK: Dulwich College Enterprises Pp. x + 395         ISBN 978-0-9539493-2-8 Reviewed by Laurence Raw Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey October 2, 2008 Founded in 1619, Dulwich College in south-east London was the brainchild of the Elizabethan stage actor (and contemporary of Shakespeare) Edward Alleyn, who sought to perpetuate his memory by creating a school consisting of “one Master, one Warden, and foure Fellows […] twelve aged poore people, and twelve poore children.” The College and the adjacent Chapel were constructed by John Benson of Westminster, Inigo Jones’ builder who also worked on the masques and other projects for the royal court. Alleyn died in 1626, and his will made provision for ten new almshouses, as well as for the creation of the metal College seal on which Alleyn’s crest was engraved. For the next two and a half centuries the school endured periods of prosperity and decline, but could not compete with England’s older, more well-established public schools such as Eton, Harrow or Winchester. It was only after the passing of the Dulwich College Act by Parliament in 1857, which permitted the school to be run on a more businesslike basis, with qualified staff and a revised curriculum (including Latin, Greek, English literature, religion, history and geography) that its status improved. Within three decades it came to be recognized as a major public school. The architect Charles Barry jnr. (son of the architect who designed the Houses of Parliament) created an imposing Gothic building, opened in 1870 and still fully operational today. Among the College’s more famous alumni are the writers P.G.Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler, who came to London from Los Angeles and attended from 1900-1905. Jan Piggott, who taught English at the College for over three decades, adopts a chronological approach to his material. He pays special attention to Alleyn’s life and career: the book begins with a survey of his theatrical achievements, focusing in particular on his work in Shakespeare’s company, before looking at the actor’s philanthropic work. Piggott draws on the College’s extensive archives in these chapters – a task he seems uniquely qualified to undertake, having spent several years as the school’s archivist. The following chapters tell the story of the College, combining historical narrative with profiles of some of its more colorful personalities – school principals (known as Masters), noted staff members, benefactors and alumni. The text is complemented by well-chosen illustrations from the archives. Ordinarily a book like this might appeal mostly to College alumni or academics interested in Wodehouse’s or Chandler’s early career. However what renders Dulwich College – A History more interesting is the way in which it forges a link between the public schools and the construction of English identity since the mid-nineteenth century. James Carver (Master of the College between 1858 and 1863) believed that his students should acquire “a high tone of morality, manliness, truth and honour” that would equip them for “wildly divergent positions in life” (p. 152). One of his successors, Arthur Herman Gilkes, wrote in 1907 that a classical or humanities-based education was designed to transform boys into “real men … The qualities which make a man are truthfulness, cleanness, courage, public spirit, kindness, with an understanding quickened in all directions” (p. 182). Dulwich College had the advantage (according to another Master) of being “actually at the centre of the Empire [in south-east London], where all the art and learning of different civilizations of the world have their witness” (p. 259). A good secondary education at the school equipped boys with the skills of diplomacy and an upstanding nature, which helped them promote English interests abroad, and hence maintain the stability of the Empire in peace and war. Such qualities also provided an important means of forging the stereotype of Englishness, especially in Hollywood during the middle part of the twentieth century. Piggott devotes a substantial part of the book to those men who successfully accomplished this task in various fields – politics, diplomacy, education and the military. But it was not only statespersons who were imbued with this spirit: Piggott shows how P.G.Wodehouse’s school stories place an emphasis on “team work, unselfish civilised behaviour, on not getting above oneself, and on avoiding affectation or boasting” (p. 225). The film director Michael Powell, who attended the school from 1920 onwards, vowed to his mother that he would try to sustain the Christian public school ideal of being “a true and pure knight” (p. 232). Perhaps this helps to explain his admiration for Hollywood expatriates who embodied a certain ideal of Englishness, particularly David Niven. Piggott shows how such ideals of gentlemanliness, politeness and civility still underpin a Dulwich College education, even in the postcolonial era. He notes how a flourishing literary culture at the school during the 1950s and 1960s produces a generation of new writers (including Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient), whose merits were “equal, perhaps, to the days of clever young courtiers and lawyers in Renaissance London” (p. 294). Edward Alleyn would have been proud of such people. While Barry’s Gothic buildings have been updated to suit changing times, the architecture is still designed to communicate specific behavioral messages: the main entrance hall (known as the Lower Hall) was redecorated in the early 80s with a chandelier, carpet and leather sofas. The intention was to create an environment that would encourage boys “to behave like gentlemen” (p. 314). Dulwich College has most recently opened international schools in Thailand and China, which are designed to raise the school’s profile (as well as increasing its income), as well as offering a particular brand of education for “parents [who] otherwise would be faced with difficult schooling decisions” (p. 326). While the College itself remains resolutely committed to single-sex education (the current Master, Graham Able, believes that boys thrive better academically in this kind of environment), the international Schools are co-educational. Nonetheless, they remain committed to the kind of ideals that have sustained the school for the last century and a half – politeness and civility as well as intellectual development. The school in Thailand closed in 2005 (as the College withdrew its franchise), but there are currently two branches in Shanghai and Beijing, with a third branch having just opened in Suzhou. The book concludes with a final chapter on “Games and Sports,” which surveys the achievements of various alumni in traditional English sports such as cricket and soccer as well as boxing, athletics and tennis. Once again we are reminded of the connection between a public school education and the formation of English identity: the chapter includes an epigraph (taken from The Westminster Gazette of 1922), that likens the Dulwich freshman to “a potential hero […] dazzled in the descended glory of past years which scintillate with innumerable grand deeds and grander men” (p. 334). While the book sometimes overwhelms the reader with factual information (I’d have preferred more detailed biographies of the College’s more celebrated alumni), it nonetheless represents a major achievement. Written in a clear, accessible style by an author whose enthusiasm for his subject is clearly apparent, it provides an invaluable resource for anyone interested in English educational history and its contribution to the formation of national identity. About the Reviewer Laurence Raw Professor, Department of Education Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey Laurence Raw is a professor in the Department of Education, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey. He has published two textbooks on British Culture on class, and the country and the city, as well as numerous articles on the pedagogy of teaching English to young learners.