The Late JOHN HERNAMAN, Esq.

JOHN HERNAMAN, the subject of this sketch, was born on Easter Day, 1846, in the Forest of Dean, in the picturesque hundred of St. Briarvels, which stretches down to the banks of the Wye.

He was the only son of Mr. John Hernaman, of Woodmancote, near Cheltenham, who was for many years an active member of the School Board for the Township of Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire.

He was educated at the school in connection with St. Paul's College, Cheltenham, which he afterwards entered as a student, having gained a Queen's Scholarship.

This step was taken much against the wishes of his friends, who urged him to accept the offer of taking up his articles with Dr. Lovegrove, the well known solicitor and Coroner of Gloucester.

Mr. Hernaman, however, decided to serve in Trinity School, Cheltenham, then under the care of the late Rev. Gordon Calthrop.

The Late John Hernaman, Esq., A.K.C.

Having previously served as an assistant master at the Lambeth Schools, under Dr. Heller, Mr. Hernaman was@ offered and accepted the Head Mastership of the Bishopsgate Ward Schools, which he re-organised, and which were re-built during his stay there.

While in charge of these schools he never lost touch of work which he had been carrying on in Lambeth in connection with the Hercules Recreation Club, of which he was long one of the most prominent and hardworldng members.

As chairman d the Elocution Class, Mr. Hernaman developed and carried to a high degree of excellence a work already powerful and well known, and gave it a reputation second to none in societies of its land in London. As a widely known reader and elocutionist Mr. Hernaman had been listened to by thousands of persons in various parts of England when holiday leisure permitted.

On the resignation of Dr. Heller, in the Midsummer of 1874, he became his successor as Head Master of the Lambeth Schools, being unanimously elected from nearly a hundred applicants for the post.

In the Michaelmas term of 1870 Mr. Hernaman matriculated at King's College, where he gained distinction as a student, and was a prizeman, and, after the final examinations, was elected by the Council an Associate, in the Lent term of 1875.

While at the College he had the advantage of attending the Divinity Lectures of Dr. Barry, then Principal, and afterwards Bishop of Sydney and Primate of Australia, and also studied under Professors Plumptre, Cutler, Burney Yeo, and Leone Levi.

In December, 1892, he was elected a member of the Society of Arts.

From the first, he had identified himself with the University Extension movement in London and with the proposed affiliation of Training Colleges with the Universities.

For some time he was one of the evening Science Lecturers at the Royal Polytechnic College in Regent Street, but finding the strain of his work at Lambeth too great, he resigned the appointment. 

In 1880 Mr. Hernaman was called to be Resident of the Lambeth Teachers' Association, which was then the largest in England, and after the United Conference of the National Union of Teachers at Hawkstone Hall, in Easter, 1881, he was presented with an illuminated address, acknowledging the tact and ability displayed by him in connection with the arrangements.

He was instrumental in forming a Pupil Teachers Centre at the School in Hercules Buildings, and this was by no means the least important of the many progressive educational movements he helped to start and sustain.

His lamented and sudden decease was a great shock to his many friends, and removed one of the most popular and widely known figures in the public life of Lambeth.

Memorial Tablet to the Late John Hernaman, Esq.

The Late Dr. Thomas Edmund Heller

The late Dr. Thomas Edmund Heller will rank as one of the most distinguished of the former Head Masters of the Lambeth Boys' School.

On his appointment he practically reorganised the School, and it soon occupied a foremost place amongst the best schools of its class in England.

He became not only a distinguished Head Master, and an ornament of his profession, but also one of the recognised educational authorities of his time.

As Editor of "The Schoolmaster" and the Organising secretary of the National Union of Teachers, he was identified with many movements for ameliorating the condition of School Teachers and for advancing the educational progress of his age.

The Late Dr. Thomas Hellar

His notable achievements in the foundation of Evening Schools and classes for working men were a prominent feature of his work while at Lambeth, and his election as one of the earliest members of the London School Board was a recognition on the part of the general public of his ability and fitness for the position.

He was connected with the Metropolitan Association for Promoting the Education of Adults, which existed in 1868, and for some years after, and which did an excellent work.

On his retirement from Lambeth as Head Master of the School, he received a number of very gratifying testimonials at a public meeting at which the late Archbishop Tait presided, and a crowded attendance testified to the universal respect in which Dr. Heller was held.

He was a most successful teacher, and very popular with the boys.

Tall, and of dignified presence, with intellectual features, he seemed always in his element as head of a large school, and his influence with the boys was as remarkable as his undoubted power and success in dealing with men.

Mr. Wood received his early training at Charlton School, where he became a pupil teacher in 1876, and in 1880 gained the Archbishop's prize and an autograph certificate, being the first award under the East Kent examination scheme. In the next year Mr. Wood obtained a 1st Class Queen's Scholarship, and proceeding to St. Mark's College, Chelsea, in January, 1882, remained at that institution for two years, taking a high position in the 1st Class in both the Government and the Scholarships Examinations. After obtaining a 1st Class in the London University Matriculation Examination, Latin and Greek being the compulsory subjects, Mr. Wood served for three years 1884/6 under the London School Board, and from 1887 to 1891 held the appointment of Head Master of Barley National School, Royston, occupying a similar position at Stotfold Board School from 1891-5, fulfilling also the duties of organist and choirmaster of the parish church at both places.