Cecil Reddie
| Cecil Reddie | |
|---|---|
Dr Cecil Reddie, progressive educationalist and co-founder of Abbotsholme School
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| Born |
10 October 1858 Fulham |
| Died | 6 February 1932 (aged 73) London |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Reforming Educationalist |
| Years active | 1884–1927 |
| Known for | Abbotsholme School |
| Relatives |
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Dr Cecil Reddie (10 October 1858 – 6 February 1932) was a reforming educationalist. He founded and was headmaster of the progressive Abbotsholme School.
He was born in Colehill Lodge, Fulham, London, the sixth of ten children. His parents were James Reddie from Kinross, an Admiralty civil servant and Caroline Susannah Scott. He spent four years at Goldolphin School in London until his parents' deaths. He attended Birkenhead School (1871–1872) as a day-boy and he then was a boarder at Fettes College, Edinburgh (1872–1878). He studied medicine, physics, mathematics and chemistry at Edinburgh University (1878–1882) before obtaining his doctorate in chemistry at Göttingen University (1882–1884).
He had been unhappy at boarding school and was bored by the classical curriculum. While in Göttingen he was greatly impressed by the progressive educational theories being applied there. In 1883 he joined the radical Fellowship of the New Life in England and decided to establish a school for boys based on socialist principles. He agonised over his homosexuality and he sought emotional guidance. He was influenced by fellow teacher Clement Charles Cotterill, polymath Patrick Geddes, the romantic socialist poet, Edward Carpenter and John Ruskin. He rejected corporal punishment and substituted the principles of self-discipline and tutoring. Other influences came from German naturists and Walt Whitman who believed in 'the love of comrades' and in 'guiltless affection between men'.
He returned to Fettes to teach science and then moved to Clifton College in Bristol until 1888. His clash with the college over his ideas, particular on sex education caused him to leave after a breakdown in health. Reddie lived with Carpenter from 1888 to 1889 who helped him found Abbotsholme School in Derbyshire in 1889 with the financial support of Robert Muirhead and William Cassels. The school opened with six students. He made the school his life's work. Apart from two years in the US on sick leave (1906–1907), he ran the school until he retired in 1927.
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