Oscar Browning

Oscar Browning (17 January 1837 in London – 6 October 1923 in Rome) was an English writer, historian, and educational reformer. His greatest achievement was the cofounding, along with Henry Sidgwick, of the Cambridge University Day Training College in 1891. This was one of the earliest institutions in Great Britain to focus on the training of educators, preempted only by the founding of the Cambridge Teaching College for Women by Elizabeth Hughes in 1885.

Browning was born in London, the son of merchant William Shipton Browning, and educated at Eton College, where he was a pupil of William Johnson Cory and at King's College, Cambridge, where he became fellow and tutor, graduating fourth in the classical tripos of 1860, and where he was inducted into the exclusive Cambridge Apostles, a debating society for the Cambridge elite.

For 15 years Browning was a master at Eton College, until he was dismissed in the autumn of 1875 following a major paedophilic scandal involving several of his pupils at Eton. His parents' church, St. Andrew's, in Clewer, describes the reasons for his dismissal as "his injudicious talk, his favourites, and his anarchic spirit."

After Eton Browning returned to King's College, Cambridge, where he took up a life fellowship and achieved a reputation as a wit, becoming universally known as "O.B.". He travelled to India at George Curzon's invitation after the latter had become Viceroy. In 1876 he resumed residence at Cambridge, where he became university lecturer in history. He soon became a prominent figure in college and university life, encouraging especially the study of political science and modern political history, the extension of university teaching and the movement for the training of teachers.

Browning served as principal of the Cambridge University Day Training College (1891–1909), treasurer of the Cambridge Union Society (1881–1902), founding treasurer of the Cambridge University Liberal Club (1885–1908), and president of the Cambridge Footlights (1890–1895).

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