Edmond Holmes


Edmond Gore Alexander Holmes was an Anglo-Irish educationalist, writer and poet. His writings are noted for his view that Western thought is bankrupt.

Early life

He was born in County Westmeath, Ireland, the fourth son in a large family. His father was Robert Holmes of Moycashel, a farmer known as a breeder of English shorthorn cattle, and of racehorses; his mother was Jane Henn, daughter of William Henn junior, a master in chancery. Both Edmond and his younger brother the classical scholar T. Rice Holmes were born at Waterstone House, a property near Athlone owned by Robert Holmes.
Edmond Holmes moved to London in 1861, at age 11. He was educated from 1863 at Merchant Taylors' School, and matriculated at St John's College, Oxford in 1869, graduating B.A. in 1874 with a first class degree in Greats, M.A. 1876. On his father's death, the family estate including land at Ardnurcher, Kilbeggan and Durrow passed to the eldest son Robert William Arbuthnot Holmes, a barrister and government official, who in the 1870s owned.
Briefly teaching at Repton School and Wellington School after Oxford, Holmes was then a tutor in the family of George Finch-Hatton, 11th Earl of Winchilsea.

Career

Holmes became an inspector of schools in 1875, a position he obtained through the influence of the Earl of Winchilsea. He was impressed on encountering the teacher Harriet Finlay-Johnson in 1903.
Katherine Bathurst who had had a troubled career was transferred from Wales to work under Holmes's supervision. Disputes between them ensued, including expenses, timetables and Bathurst's objections to Holmes amending her reports. The Oxford Education Committee complained about her and she was given six months probation in February 1904; in the following month female inspectors were moved to a new organisation as proposed by Robert Morant. Bathurst was sent to Manchester.
Holmes rose to become chief inspector for elementary schools in 1905. He resigned in 1910. By this time he had been joined by other critics of contemporary education, Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton and James Herbert Simpson, later the first head of Rendcomb College.

Holmes-Morant circular

The following year Holmes became involved in controversy, over a confidential memorandum criticising school inspectors who had formerly been elementary school teachers. This angered the teachers' union and it led to the downfall of Robert Morant, the permanent secretary to the Board of Education, when it became public.

Publications

Holmes's writings on education are taken as an early statement of "progressive" and "child-centred" positions.
  • What Is and What Might Be, critical of the existing school system.
  • The Montessori System of Education
  • The Tragedy of Education
  • In Defence of What Might Be. A review described it as "pregnant with possibilities for the untrammeled soul of the growing child. A draft of fresh air into static pedagogy."
  • Freedom and Growth and other essays
Poetry
Religious
  • A Confession of Faith. By an Unorthodox Believer
  • The Creed of Christ
  • The Creed of the Buddha
  • All is One; a plea for the higher pantheism
  • Experience of Reality
Other works
  • Sursum Corda. A Defence of Idealism
  • In Quest of an Ideal, autobiography
  • Philosophy Without Metaphysics
  • ''The Headquarters of Reality. A Challenge to Western Thought''

    Personal life

Holmes married in 1880 Florence Mary Syme, daughter of Peter Macfarlane Syme RA and his wife Elizabeth Georgina Mulock. They had three children, two daughters and a son. Of the children: