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Making a Man of Him: Parents and Their Sons' Education at an English Public School 1929-50
Originally published in 1988, this book analyses the effect of public boarding school on those boys who grew to manhood under its influence. With access to over 2000 letters written by parents to the Head Master and governors of Ellesmere College in the period 1929-50, it raises issues about the construction of masculinity in the mid-twentieth century. The author demonstrates from these candid letters the concerns of a small group of parents bringing up their sons: their aspirations, plans, fears and problems. She shows how parents' plans changed, sometimes very dramatically, due to the Second World War, and demonstrates the differences between social groups as diverse as clergy, widows and farmers in bringing up their sons. The author also presents fascinating and elusive evidence about the sons themselves and the effects of their schooling on their models of masculinity, sexuality and attitudes to women. This book places the particular concerns of a relatively small group within the much wider contexts of education, social and gender structure.
258 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2018
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October 16, 2025
While this is a book about English boarding school education for boys and the effect it had on the little tykes, it does not concern itself with the wealthy institutions of that genre: Eton, Harrow, and the like. The school discussed here is Ellesmere Academy in the rural county of Shropshire, quite a long way down market in the rankings – in the period between 1929 and 1950, that is.
Where Eton and the other big boys took the youth of British plutocracy, aristocracy, nobility and royalty and moulded them into royals, nobles, aristocrats and Conservative Party politicians, Ellesmere targeted parents from the clergy, the local farmers, Civil Servants and military personnel posted overseas in the Empire, and aspirational middle class tradespeople. The fees were modest rather than extravagant and could be reduced for deserving cases or, during the Depression of the 30s, to keep the school financially afloat.
The bulk of the study relies on an archive of correspondence from parents to the school and from some of the boys to their parents and in that, as the author admits, lies a weakness. She describes the parents' letters as being from “a small group” which “at first sight [represent]... the narrow concerns of an insignificant and privileged minority”, while those letters from boys tend to be from students who enjoyed their time in the school, though there are a few exceptions.
The author skilfully adds the limitations of the source material to a wide understanding of the history of education in Britain to produce what is perhaps surprisingly, given the subject and its academic nature, a very readable, sometimes moving, and always fascinating book with its underlying theme of how a school set out to not only educate boys and prepare them for their future but, in the terms of the period, develop “masculinity and manliness.” For these were not the sons of the truly privileged in the British hierarchy. These were boys who would have to leave school and earn a living - a very good living, if they played their cards right, had some force of character and were not shy of using the influence a public school background could give. Yet even for them it was a tough old world outside the cloister of academe and by 1950 the Empire and the old ways were crumbling and competition was growing.
The book is about the school as it was in the first half of the twentieth century and should not be seen as representing the institution as it is today. I am sure that many things and attitudes have changed. I wonder if the priority now is toward the sons – and daughters – of clergy, farmers, and middle ranking civil servants? I noticed that the school prospectus on its website is available in English and both Chinese and Russian. Is there an International Baccalaureate course in oligarchy and autocracy these days?
Where Eton and the other big boys took the youth of British plutocracy, aristocracy, nobility and royalty and moulded them into royals, nobles, aristocrats and Conservative Party politicians, Ellesmere targeted parents from the clergy, the local farmers, Civil Servants and military personnel posted overseas in the Empire, and aspirational middle class tradespeople. The fees were modest rather than extravagant and could be reduced for deserving cases or, during the Depression of the 30s, to keep the school financially afloat.
The bulk of the study relies on an archive of correspondence from parents to the school and from some of the boys to their parents and in that, as the author admits, lies a weakness. She describes the parents' letters as being from “a small group” which “at first sight [represent]... the narrow concerns of an insignificant and privileged minority”, while those letters from boys tend to be from students who enjoyed their time in the school, though there are a few exceptions.
The author skilfully adds the limitations of the source material to a wide understanding of the history of education in Britain to produce what is perhaps surprisingly, given the subject and its academic nature, a very readable, sometimes moving, and always fascinating book with its underlying theme of how a school set out to not only educate boys and prepare them for their future but, in the terms of the period, develop “masculinity and manliness.” For these were not the sons of the truly privileged in the British hierarchy. These were boys who would have to leave school and earn a living - a very good living, if they played their cards right, had some force of character and were not shy of using the influence a public school background could give. Yet even for them it was a tough old world outside the cloister of academe and by 1950 the Empire and the old ways were crumbling and competition was growing.
The book is about the school as it was in the first half of the twentieth century and should not be seen as representing the institution as it is today. I am sure that many things and attitudes have changed. I wonder if the priority now is toward the sons – and daughters – of clergy, farmers, and middle ranking civil servants? I noticed that the school prospectus on its website is available in English and both Chinese and Russian. Is there an International Baccalaureate course in oligarchy and autocracy these days?
Displaying 1 of 1 review