COLL P 05

Reference code

COLL P 05

Title

Papers of Provost Warre, 1909 - 1918

Level

Series

Administrative / Biographical history

Edmond Warre was at Eton from September 1849 to August 1854, boarding successively with Miss Vavasour, Mr Vidal and Rev. W.B. Marriott. His tutors were Edward Coleridge and Marriott. He was a successful scholar, winning the Newcastle Scholarship in 1854 and later taking a first-class degree at Balliol College, Oxford. He was also a noted oarsman. He won the School Pulling in 1854 and was in the Oxford VIII 1857-1858 and President of OUBC in 1859. He was elected a fellow of All Souls in 1859 (a position he had to vacate following his marriage in 1861 to Florence Malet) and returned to Eton as Assistant Master in 1860, initially to replace Marriott who was ill, but then as a permanent member of staff. In 1861 he built Penn House but in 1870 moved to the house now called Warre House. One of his keenest interests was the Volunteer Corps in whose foundation he played a major part, and he also became River Master and trained the Eight. In July 1884 he became Head Master in succession to Dr Hornby and instituted many reforms, of curriculum, timetable and sport. On his appointment he presented the Governing Body with a list of requirements for new school buildings and he was particularly anxious to have a single room in which the whole school could be addressed; many of his requirements, though not this one, were met over the next twenty years. The foundation of the Eton Mission in Hackney Wick was his initiative. He retired in 1905, by which time his health was failing, but in 1909 was elected Provost. It is clear that at least from the war years much of the decision making was in practice carried on by M.R. James, who as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, was Senior Fellow, because Warre himself was largely bedridden with Parkinson's disease. He resigned in 1918. Warre was ordained in 1867 and in 1899 was collated to the prebend of Warminster in Wells Cathedral. He was an honorary chaplain to King Edward VII and was awarded the C.B., the C.V.O. and the Volunteer Decoration. Balliol made him an Honorary Fellow in 1896 and in 1907 he received a D.C.L. from Oxford University.

Date

1874 - 1917

Associated material

Letters from Dr Warre can also be found in the papers of Provost Hornby (COLL/P4), together with a draft of a telegram informing him of his appointment as Head Master. There is material concerning his retirement in the papers of Provost James (COLL/P6/14) who papers should also be consulted more generally for Dr Warre's time as Provost. A letter to Mrs Balston about her husband's leaving portraits was found in Provost Marten's papers (COLL/P8/84) and the records of the Eton Officers' Memorial Fund (MISC/EOMF) contain correspondence with Provost Goodfoord and others. His House Chronicle also survives, 1861-1884. Reminiscences by his daughter (ED182) and a copy of letters on rowing to Frederick Halcomb (ED180 and ED376) have been presented to the College. There is further material at All Souls College, Oxford, The British Library and the King's College Archives Centre, Cambridge.