Introduction
John Charles Buckmaster was born in 1819 (Tasker, 1974), or 1820 (Ancestry and WorldCat) or 23rd February 1823 (The Peerage) in Slapton, Buckinghamshire to Robert and Sarah Buckmaster. He was baptised in Mentmore, Buckinghamshire on 20th February 1820. The details of his early life can be found in his autobiography, A village politician, the life-story of John Buckley, but this document becomes less detailed after he qualified as a science teacher in his mid-thirties. Thereafter his story is best followed from a variety of external sources. It is worth noting that 'the life-story of John Buckley' is in fact the autobiography of John Charles Buckmaster and that he has changed some names of people and places where he felt it appropriate.
There is also a story (refuted by Mary Tasker) that John Charles Buckmaster was illegitimate. The New Scientist publicised her article on Buckmaster under the heading of "a bastard from Bucks". She queried the poor taste of this headline saying that 'As the author of the article on Buckmaster and incidentally one of his descendants, I wish to make it clear that Buckmaster's illegitimacy is not a proven fact, merely a possibility.' (Tasker, 1977b, p. 496). Whether true or false, the issue is not a matter of consequence at the present time; his record as a reformer in science and technical education stands on its own.
The autobiography opens with the funeral of John Charles Buckmaster's mother, which took place when he was only four years old. His grandmother then took care of him for about three years and he always remained grateful to her for this. At the age of seven, his father gave him in care to an uncle, 'at Oxenbridge, who had the reputation of being a firm, religious, God-fearing man'. 'It was agreed between my father and grandmother that he [the uncle] should receive ten shillings a week, with the understanding that I was to be religiously brought up, well cared for, and educated' (p. 3).
His uncle however treated him badly, flogging him daily with a heavy dog-whip for the most minor supposed offences and he was often not allowed to attend school as he was given domestic chores to perform. Buckmaster's account of his early life in his uncle's house is harrowing:
In summer-time nearly all the boys went to a little mill-stream to bathe. Why was I not allowed to bathe? As a special reward for dragging two fat children four miles along a dusty road on a hot July day, I was permitted for once, as a great treat, to bathe. I looked forward to this day like a prisoner for his liberty, but when it came it brought no pleasure. When I took off my shirt and saw, what I had often seen before, that my body, from the shoulders downwards, was mottled with bruises, from dark purple to a greenish yellow in colour, I felt so ashamed for the other boys to see it, that I made an excuse that the water was too cold, and I put on my shirt and returned home, to be flogged for not saying where I had been. I can truly say that for weeks and months my body was never free from bruises and wheals.
Buckmaster, 1897, pp. 3–4
In another instance of his uncle's cruelty, he drank the contents of a bottle that he found. Later, his uncle said it was poison (though it was not a poison) and his uncle had him measured for a coffin. Buckmaster could not sleep all night believing that he would die. He spent an 'awful night' in 'sorrowful anguish' (p. 8) and in the morning his uncle and aunt 'laughed at his sufferings' (p. 9).
Buckmaster as a Teenager
At the age of ten he was able to read and write fairly well and was sent home to work as a farm labourer. In general, he preferred this to his earlier experiences and he managed to obtain scraps of education from people who befriended him. He progressed to an apprenticeship, but the failure of an early romance caused him to move on, without completing the apprenticeship. His romance with Rachel was deeply felt:
… and if, as I had read somewhere, all ethical laws should be based on natural laws, there was nothing wrong in my love for Rachel. I never mentioned her name to anyone, but her form was ever present, and I could never shake her from my memory.
Buckmaster, 1897, p. 90
He left the village and wrote to her asking her to come away with him, but his letter fell into the wrong hands; he was arrested and imprisoned and her family moved to another town. He never saw his Rachel again. This part of the story is significant as he does not tell his readers anything about his wife, such as her name, when and where they got married or any information about her. The story of his marriage is told in two stark sentences:
I was now making a fair income, and I thought of getting married. I mentioned the matter to the Principal, who saw no objection; he thought it gave me a better standing; and so I got married, and I had no cause to regret it, and it was not a failure. But my affection for my wife attained its climax when, after forty years, I stood, with my five grown-up children, by her grave.
Buckmaster, 1897, p. 281
The Young Buckmaster
As a young man he became an orator for the Anti-Corn Law League. He seems to have been a competent organiser and he improved his public speaking. His methods were always non-violent. His own success in the movement brought him powerful friends, who advised and helped him to obtain a position being trained as a teacher at an early teacher training college.
… he threw himself heart and soul into the Anti-Corn Law agitation, until towards its close he attracted the attention of Lord Morpeth, who advised him to give up politics and turn his attention to the growing cause of public education. This he did with marvelous energy and success; and this was the turning‒, and perhaps saving-point of his future life.
Mundella, 1897, p. vi
Lord Morpeth was evidently prepared to pay for Buckmaster to become a teacher and 'gave a letter to Dr. Kaye, who sent me [Buckmaster] to a training school' (p. 242). He was admitted as a 'mature student' in his early thirties to Kay-Shuttleworth's Battersea College for the training of elementary teachers (Battersea Normal School) in 1853 (Foden, 1992, p. 4). There were about forty students of mixed ages, education and origins (p. 243). His experiences at this Institution were often 'peculiar and painful' (p. 244) and he had some problems with the principal over the church doctrine and history examination. Buckmaster started to take a greater interest in science and was inspired by the teaching of Thomas Tate, science lecturer at Battersea (Tasker, 1977a, p. 485).
Buckmaster's Early Career
He gave science instruction to the sons of the government inspector and some other children (p. 247). The government inspector, who was the first science HMI (Layton, 1977, pp. 404–406), was Reverend Henry Moseley (Tasker, 1977a, p. 485) and he became a valuable friend and patron to Buckmaster. Thirty years later Buckmaster met one of the boys again, then a professor at Oxford University who said 'I should never have been where I am but for your teaching, which gave me a love for science I have ever since cultivated' (p. 248).
He was asked to assist the Poor Law Inspector in the inspection of Norwood Poor Law or pauper school that was nearby. He noted the very unsanitary conditions around this school that more experienced visitors had not noticed and before he could start his work, a cholera epidemic started with 150 dead in a four day period (p. 254). His thoughts on the treatment of the poor under the law were to influence him for the rest of his life.
He continued at the Institution (Battersea) as a science teacher and was then recommended to take charge of the education section in a juvenile convict section of Parkhurst Prison. He taught science in a practical and relevant way and made suggestions for reform, but all his suggestions were rejected (p. 270). Most inmates were eventually transported to Australia. He worked at the prison for two years and then returned to be in charge of science at Battersea when Thomas Tate retired.
It is at this stage that Buckmaster accepted a scholarship of thirty shillings a week to train at the School of Mines as a science teacher (Foden, 1992, p. 4). Only five students took this course, taught by excellent academic staff. At the end of the course he wrote: 'At last I heard that only two had passed, and I was one of them. My joy knew no bounds.' (p. 296). The Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel asked his advice about curriculum matters for a new school, but Peel's sudden death meant that his project did not progress.
The Department of Trade closed the Trade School (p. 296). The book concludes only half complete (p. 337) but tells a final story where Buckmaster attempted and eventually succeeded in preventing the local common being sold to a developer — in a sense reverting to his earlier life as an Anti-Corn Law agitator.
In July 1870, two members of the Preservation Society, Mr Buckmaster and Mr Ransome, petitioned the Lord Mayor to hold a public meeting, which he agreed to, attended by ten Members of Parliament.
Wandsworth Common Conservation Area Appraisal
Buckmaster's efforts (on one occasion he addressed a crowd estimated at 4,000 to 5,000) in this successful agitation eventually provided him with a permanent memorial: Middleton Road was renamed in 1937 after J. C. Buckmaster, the prominent local resident who campaigned tirelessly for the preservation of Wandsworth Common.
Buckmaster's Marriage
His marriage to Emily Anne Goodliffe, daughter of George Goodliffe, took place on 9th August 1853. Together they had four sons all of whom had long and successful careers. Emily Anne died on 30th June, 1890.
- Charles Alexander Buckmaster (born 16 May 1854, died 24 May 1949) — took up chemistry; became Assistant Secretary of the Board of Education, 1908–1914
- George Alfred Buckmaster (born 7 Feb 1859, died 21 Dec 1937) — studied medicine; elected Professor of Physiology, Bristol University
- Stanley Owen Buckmaster, 1st Viscount Buckmaster (born 9 Jan 1861, died 5 Dec 1934) — took up law and politics
- Martin Arnold Buckmaster (born 2 Aug 1862, died 14 Aug 1960) — authority on architecture and artist
This is illustrative of social mobility possible in the Victorian era, with the family moving from poverty to nobility within a generation.
In 1859, he was appointed as Science 'Organising Master' and this effectively ended Buckmaster's teaching career; thereafter he remained an employee of the Department of Education for the next thirty-four years. One feature of his career is that he never obtained a university degree. His qualifications were a 'teacher's certificate and a first class certificate in chemistry and a second class certificate in physics from the School of Mines' (Tasker, 1977a, p. 485).
Buckmaster as a Civil Servant
In 1860, the Department sent Buckmaster to Banbury where he delivered lectures at the Mechanics' Institute and at Samuelson's Britannia Works. He explained the Department's science scheme and the ways that classes could qualify for grants. As a result of this visit, Samuelson built special classrooms in which science could be taught at the Cherwell School which he was constructing — this became the very successful Banbury Science School.
Buckmaster's duties were to popularise science and publicise the Department's examinations and over time he became the best travelled of the Department's officers, so he knew and was known by a large proportion of science and technical teachers in England. Martyn Walker quotes a characteristic instance:
In 1866, J. C. Buckmaster from the Department of Science and Art attended the Darlington Institute and addressed members on Instruction in Science and the aid given by the Department to Science Classes. He travelled from London specifically to work with the Institute and the result was the introduction of the Department's own science and art examinations for those taking these subjects.
Walker, 2012, p. 76
His application for an examinership in chemistry with the Department of Science and Art, his employer, was rejected in 1861 on the grounds that he 'lacked the necessary academic background' — yet he was simultaneously an Examiner in chemistry and physics in the Royal College of Preceptors.
Chemistry Book Reviews
His book The elements of chemistry, inorganic and organic was his first venture into authorship. An anonymous reviewer in The Westminster Review (Anon, 1866, p. 240) provides a mainly favourable review, describing the book as 'very acceptable' and cheap, but criticises 'chaotic nomenclature' especially in inorganic chemistry.
Comments made by Sir William Crookes were extremely harsh. Crookes was a chemist of note, famous for his discovery of the element thallium and for his work on spectroscopy and radioactivity. He also founded and edited the journal Chemical News. According to Crookes the text 'abounds with loose statements, inaccuracies as to fact, and very important omissions.'
Much of the dispute centred on chemical nomenclature. Most English chemists at this time believed that the formula for water was OH not H₂O; Buckmaster had updated his text to use Gerhardt's notation (which gave H₂O), a controversial choice that may itself have irritated Crookes. The sentence below must have stung Buckmaster:
Bad grammar, confused statements, bad chemistry, and false chemistry are dear at any price; yet such a vicious collocation is the natural result of a system of examination which is contented with a very superficial general training, and does not require practical acquaintance with what is a pre-eminently practical subject.
Crookes, 1866, p. 186
Here Crookes goes too far, as the book supplied a need which no other chemistry text at that time fulfilled. These books must have sold exceptionally well as they reached the fourteenth edition in 1878.
Buckmaster's Other Texts
Buckmaster wrote textbooks on chemistry, cookery, scientific agriculture, animal physiology and several on different aspects of physics. All of these were subjects examined by the Department of Education and Buckmaster regularly visited the Technical Institutes. Who better to know what was needed than someone working for the Department of Education? Buckmaster was thus a popular and important figure with numerous connections in education — including to the United Association of Schoolmasters, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Society of Arts.
Buckmaster's Cookery
He was passionately interested in education especially technical education, promoting agricultural education for boys and cookery for girls. Tasker (1977, p. 484) comments:
But today he is almost forgotten, remembered if at all by domestic science students for "amusing" Queen Victoria by tossing an omelette at the International Exhibition of 1873 and launching a successful crusade for cookery classes in elementary schools.
On May 9, 1873, the reclusive Queen Victoria made a rare public appearance as she attended a four minute cooking lecture given by J. C. Buckmaster — a much abbreviated summary of his normal two hour lecture. Turnbull (1994, p. 81) claims that 'The lectures were spectacularly successful; crowds flocked to them and one newspaper reported them to be far more entertaining than most plays going on these days.'
His exploits in cookery even brought him fame in America, where journals such as Popular Science Monthly commented on cookery as a science subject. His cookery texts provided at least five textbook publications from Britain and America, giving his profile and income a considerable boost.
Buckmaster's Society of Arts Connections
Buckmaster had much to do with the affairs of the Battersea Literary and Scientific Institute, which he represented for several years at the annual Conference of Unions at the Society of Arts, contributing significantly to the development of the examinations. He was an important contributor to the Society of Arts Journal over a period of about fifteen years from 1854. His recommendations to encourage students showed a commonsense approach:
- A comfortable room supplied with suitable apparatus.
- Men who are good teachers, selected if possible, from the class they have to teach.
- The terms of admission must be low.
- There must be some definite object to work for.
Finally he asserted that: 'It must not be thought from this letter that I regard examinations in any other light than that of a powerful incentive to exertion and a valuable means of education.' (p. 445)
Buckmaster's Continuing Work: More Lectures, More Travel
Buckmaster's travels over the period from 1859 to his retirement in about 1895 are truly remarkable. Around one hundred journeys can be found as newspaper reports. Within three months of the successful 1873 cookery lectures finishing, the Department of Education and Science formed a School of Cookery of which Buckmaster was the mainstay. He now toured the country giving lectures on cookery as well as on science, agriculture, chemistry, mechanics and details of government assistance.
Even after retirement, Buckmaster continued his fight for the causes in which he fervently believed through the columns of The Times and other journals. In an illustrated interview in The Young Woman, he had a brilliant but fantastic thought: 'I sometimes say that the only thing that can redeem the domestic life of this country would be an announcement in the morning that her Majesty had been observed sweeping the steps of Buckingham Palace, and had prepared her own breakfast' (Reporter, 1896).
In 1904 in a letter to The Times, he expressed his pleasure at having 'outlived the sneers and contempt which was poured on the early cookery efforts at South Kensington…' and paid tribute to Sir Henry Cole and the Commission of the Exhibition. He considered 'cooking an intellectual exercise of the highest value in the education of girls' (Buckmaster, 1904).
Conclusion
John Charles Buckmaster's long life ended on Monday 22nd July, 1908 at the age of 89. At the time of his death he was still the chairman of three education committees. He was one of the founding fathers of British science education, who achieved much through his hard work, oratory and profound common sense.
Appendix 1
Crookes, W. (1866). Review of The elements of chemistry: inorganic and organic, Chemical News, October 12th, p. 176.
The Elements of Chemistry, Inorganic and Organic. By J. C. Buckmaster. Third edition. London: Longman and Co. The manual itself is obviously the production of persons having very little practical acquaintance with the subjects of which they treat. It abounds with loose statements, inaccuracies as to fact, and very important omissions. An endeavour is made to shield these by a seductive appearance of clearness and compression… Bad grammar, confused statements, bad chemistry, and false chemistry are dear at any price; yet such a vicious collocation is the natural result of a system of examination which is contented with a very superficial general training, and does not require practical acquaintance with what is a pre-eminently practical subject. We are far from impugning the educational status of "Certificated teachers" individually: but it is too much that the mere certificate as now granted should be taken as proving competence to teach. Can we be surprised that it should lead the less informed to write books? We commend to the consideration of Mr. Buckmaster, his coadjutor, and the public one remarkable sentence which occurs in this manual at page 33: "Nothing short of actually doing the thing will give the proper knowledge."