William Haig Brown

William Haig Brown (1823–1907) was an English cleric and reforming headmaster of Charterhouse School.

Born at Bromley by Bow, Middlesex, on 3 December 1823, he was third son of Thomas Brown of Edinburgh and his wife Amelia, daughter of John Haig, of the Haigs of Bemersyde. At age nine he went to Christ's Hospital, where he remained, first in the junior school at Hertford, and later on in London, until 1842.

In 1842 Haig Brown entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1846 as second in the first class in the classical tripos. Elected a fellow in October 1848 (M.A. 1849), and taking holy orders (deacon 1852 and priest 1853), he was engaged in college work until 1857, when he was appointed headmaster of Kensington School.

In 1863, on the resignation of Dr. Richard Elwyn, the Schoolmaster of Charterhouse School, Haig Brown was appointed his successor on 12 November, against tradition that the Schoolmaster should have been educated at the school. In 1864 he proceeded LL.D. at Cambridge. That year the Public Schools' Commission recommended the school's removal from central London, a suggestion opposed by Acton Smee Ayrton. By circulating old Carthusians, Haig Brown gained support for the move, and also won over Lord Derby, an influential Charterhouse governor, and W. E. Gladstone, another.

In May 1866 the Charterhouse governors decided on the removal, and a private bill in parliament, was passed in August. The new site at Godalming, the Deanery Farm estate, was found by Haig Brown. The governors bought 55 acres: the first sod was turned on Founder's Day 1869, and on 18 June 1872 the new school was occupied by 117 old and 33 new boys. In accordance with the Public Schools Act of 1868, the school had its own governors, and Haig Brown became a conventional headmaster. Among the transferred pupils was Robert Baden-Powell, not academic, but a participant in football and competition shooting. Haig Brown encouraged the future founder of the scouting movement in his explorations of the nearby woods.

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