The educational work of Sir Bernhard Samuelson (1820-1905) with special reference to technical education

Abstract

Sir Bernhard Samuelson is generally accepted as being among the leading figures in the technical education movement of the late nineteenth century, but he has never been the subject of an individual study in either a biography or a thesis. Yet his career certainly justifies such attention. He was Chairman of the Select Committee on Scientific Instruction (1868) and the Royal Commission on Technical Instruction (1881-84), he served on the Devonshire and Cross Commissions, he was a founder-member of the Iron and Steel Institute, and a generous patron of education in Banbury and Middlesbrough. This thesis is an attempt to remedy this deficiency by chronicling and evaluating the educational work of Sir Bernhard Samuelson, paying special attention to his work in furthering the growth of technical education. Use has been made of the Samuelson Papers in the writing of the thesis. These papers were deposited in the Oxfordshire County Records Office in 1965 by the firm of solicitors which handled Samuelson's legal affairs, and the writer of the thesis has been the first to make use of this new source.