Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures and Tables
- List of Abbreviations
- Notes on the Text
- Who's Who in the Narrative
- Introduction
- 1 Town and School, 1875
- 2 Local Society and Local Government
- 3 Local Medicine and Local Doctors
- 4 Typhoid: The First Two Outbreaks, 1875
- 5 Winter 1875–6
- 6 Spring 1876
- 7 Summer 1876
- 8 Autumn, Winter and Spring 1876–7
- Aftermath and Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Uppingham Union Membership 1875
- Appendix 2 Abstract of Sums Raised by RSAs
- Notes
- Note on Sources
- Works Cited
- Index
5 - Winter 1875–6
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures and Tables
- List of Abbreviations
- Notes on the Text
- Who's Who in the Narrative
- Introduction
- 1 Town and School, 1875
- 2 Local Society and Local Government
- 3 Local Medicine and Local Doctors
- 4 Typhoid: The First Two Outbreaks, 1875
- 5 Winter 1875–6
- 6 Spring 1876
- 7 Summer 1876
- 8 Autumn, Winter and Spring 1876–7
- Aftermath and Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Uppingham Union Membership 1875
- Appendix 2 Abstract of Sums Raised by RSAs
- Notes
- Note on Sources
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
On 5 November, Thring wrote to his brother, Sir Henry Thring, who had extensive influence in Parliament:
If you can get to Sclater Booth and the Central Board [i.e. the LGB], it is simply all in all to me … if it rested with us, all could be set in order without difficulty. But it does not rest with us. The town is at fault … Unless we can get the central authority turned on, it is pretty well ruin … The town is trying to make the school its scapegoat, for the double purpose of hiding past mismanagement and preventing present outlay and exposure … Uppingham may forget but cannot forgive, that it exists mainly by the school … The Authority … cannot act with vigour enough, and [even] if it could do so now, the row and panic amongst our parents is so great that it would not help us much after the lies and exaggerations that have been set going … You government men have no conception of local tyranny.
Thus the RSA gained a further cause for complaint against Thring: his willingness to put pressure on it by exploiting his powerful contacts to the full. By November he had become convinced that he needed to force the LGB to conduct a full enquiry. However, while such a tactic might strengthen the school's position, it also risked deepening the antipathy with the town. Indeed, the RSA came to believe that Thring was determined to divert all blame away from himself. Three days later he contacted Sir Henry again: ‘I want nothing but fair play and no favour. Nor do my masters; they are honest and hard-working, and ready to do anything that is judged right.’ On receiving this second letter, Sir Henry went to visit the LGB at once.
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- Typhoid in UppinghamAnalysis of a Victorian Town and School in Crisis, 1875–7, pp. 91 - 110Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014