Arthur Sidgwick

The fourth son and fifth child of the Rev. William Sidgwick (died 1841) and his wife Mary Crofts, he was born at Skipton, Yorkshire; Henry Sidgwick was his older brother.{{cite ODNB|id=48597|first=Janet|last=Howarth|title=Sidgwick, Arthur (1840–1920)}} He was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1859, and graduating B.A. as second classic in 1863. He was President of the Cambridge Union in 1863. As was Henry, he was elected to the Cambridge Apostles. They tried, but failed, to have F. W. H. Myers elected also.{{cite book |last1=Schultz |first1=Bart |title=Henry Sidgwick - Eye of the Universe: An Intellectual Biography |date=7 June 2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-45392-9 |page=284 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MlKWWqCMb9YC&pg=PA284 |language=en}}

A Fellow of Trinity College from 1864 to 1879, Sidgwick was for that period an assistant master to Rugby School, invited to return by Frederick Temple, headmaster at the end of his time as a pupil there.{{alox2|title=Sidgwick, Arthur}} He clashed with Henry Hayman, the headmaster of Rugby.{{cite ODNB|id=33777|first=M. C.|last=Curthoys|title=Hayman, Henry (1823–1904)}}{{acad|id=SMT855CJ|name=Smith, Charles James Eliseo}} With Henry Lee Warner (1842–1925) as an ally, Sidgwick organised a significant resistance to the incoming Hayman's authority. There followed a furore in 1873–4.{{cite book |last1=Lubenow |first1=W. C. |title=The Cambridge Apostles, 1820-1914: Liberalism, Imagination, and Friendship in British Intellectual and Professional Life |date=29 October 1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-57213-2 |page=279 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sy8Ym9N3tgUC&pg=PA279 |language=en}} It saw Hayman ousted after trying to sack Sidgwick and Charles James Eliseo Smith (1835–1900).

In 1879, Sidgwick became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He stood out among the generally orthodox, conservative classics dons as a Liberal, as did the radical Thomas Collins Snow. He pioneered, with Arthur Herbert Dyke Acland, undergraduate study groups to raise awareness of current affairs.{{cite book |last1=Kadish |first1=Alon |title=Historians, Economists, and Economic History (Routledge Revivals) |date=30 November 2010 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-82671-9 |page=59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UnOrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 |language=en}}

Gilbert Murray arrived as an Oxford undergraduate in 1884, and Sidgwick became a father figure to him.{{cite book |last1=West |first1=Francis |title=Gilbert Murray, a Life |date=1984 |publisher=Croom Helm |isbn=978-0-312-32720-0 |pages=20 |language=en}} In his autobiography, after noting the continuity with school, Murray wrote: "Sidgwick was a great exception. So was one of the St John's fellows, T. C. Snow".{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Gilbert |title=Gilbert Murray: An Unfinished Autobiography, with Contributions by His Friends |date=1960 |publisher=Allen and Unwin |page=88 |language=en}} He enjoyed the chance to discuss liberal politics freely; and Stapleton writes that Murray's vision of "an alliance between classical scholarship and liberalism" was inspired by Sidgwick.{{cite book |last1=Stray |first1=Christopher |title=Gilbert Murray Reassessed: Hellenism, Theatre, and International Politics |date=12 July 2007 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-152609-1 |page=263 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PwtREAAAQBAJ&pg=PA263 |language=en}} It was at an 1887 picnic organised by the Sidgwicks that Murray met Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle, his future mother-in-law.{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Sir Duncan |title=Gilbert Murray, OM, 1866-1957 |date=1987 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-211781-6 |page=25 |language=en}}

Sidgwick was an educational reformer.{{cite book |last1=Gagel |first1=Amanda |title=Selected Letters of Vernon Lee, 1856 - 1935: Volume I, 1865-1884 |date=26 October 2016 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-134-97673-7 |page=316 note 3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUMlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA316 |language=en}} He was secretary of Oxford's Association for the Education of Women from 1882 to 1907, then becoming its president.{{cite book |last1=Rayner-Canham |first1=Marelene F. |last2=Rayner-Canham |first2=Geoffrey |title=Chemistry was Their Life: Pioneering British Women Chemists, 1880-1949 |date=2008 |publisher=World Scientific |isbn=978-1-86094-986-9 |page=237 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aCZqDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA237 |language=en}} There he worked with Bertha Johnson and Annie Rogers. In 1893 he argued in favour of women being allowed to serve on educational governing bodies.{{cite book |last1=Goodman |first1=Joyce |last2=Harrop |first2=Sylvia |title=Women, Educational Policy-Making and Administration in England: Authoritative Women Since 1800 |date=1 November 2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-63969-4 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HtqFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 |language=en}} A long-time suffragist, he was also influential in the 1920 decision by the University of Oxford to grant degrees to women.

An anti-imperialist, Sidgwick was president of the Oxford Liberal Association for 28 years. He belonged to the local group of Positivists, centred on Richard Congreve at Wadham College. He was also allied to the Manchester Guardian's supporters, typefied by his friend Leonard Hobhouse; and helped C. P. Scott recruit Hobhouse to the newspaper in 1897.{{cite book |last1=Symonds |first1=Richard |title=Oxford and Empire: The Last Lost Cause? |date=11 June 1986 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-0-333-40206-1 |pages=83, 89, 94 |language=en}}

• Introduction to Greek Prose Composition (1876), a standard work that went through many editions.{{cite book |last1=Sidgwick |first1=Arthur |title=Introduction to Greek prose composition, with exercises |date=1876 |publisher=Rivingtons |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0qkBAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Oliver Wendell, (Jr.) |last2=Frankfurter |first2=Felix |title=Holmes and Frankfurter: Their Correspondence, 1912-1934 |date=1996 |publisher=UPNE |isbn=978-0-87451-758-3 |page=43 note 4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nJAXIYZKyFUC&pg=PA43 |language=en}}
• Form Discipline (1886){{cite book |last1=Sidgwick |first1=Arthur |title=Form Discipline. A Lecture Delivered for the Teachers' Training Syndicate at Cambridge February 1886 |date=1886 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aBnjswEACAAJ |language=en}}
• Henry Sidgwick, Miscellaneous Essays and Addresses (1904), editor with Eleanor Sidgwick{{cite book |last1=Sidgwick |first1=Henry |last2=Sidgwick |first2=Arthur |title=Miscellaneous Essays and Addresses |date=1904 |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GDUSAAAAIAAJ |language=en}}
• Henry Sidgwick: A Memoir (1906), with Eleanor Sidgwick{{cite book |last1=Sidgwick |first1=Arthur |last2=Sidgwick |first2=Eleanor Mildred |title=Henry Sidgwick: A Memoir |date=1906 |publisher=Macmillan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BsJCAAAAIAAJ |language=en}}

• Homer's Iliad books i. ii. (1887){{cite book |editor-last1=Sidgwick |editor-first1=Arthur |title=Homer's Iliad, books i. ii. |date=1877 |publisher=London [Edinburgh printed] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jX8CAAAAQAAJ |language=en}}
• Aeschylus. Choephoroi (1884){{cite book |editor-last1=Sidgwick |editor-first1=Arthur |title=Aeschylus. Choephoroi |date=1884 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qMADAAAAQAAJ |language=en}}

Sidgwick married in 1873, in the hiatus from teaching at Rugby School caused by his quarrel with Hayman, Charlotte Sophia Wilson, sister of James Maurice Wilson, a colleague on the teaching staff. Their five children included Rose Sidgwick and the publisher Frank Sidgwick.

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Category:1840 births

Category:1920 deaths

Category:English classical scholars

Category:English biographers

Category:Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge

Category:Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford