Richard Dawes (educationalist)

Richard Dawes, Richard (bap. 1793, d. 1867), dean of Hereford and educationalist, was baptized on 13 April 1793 at Hawes in Yorkshire, the son of James Dawes, who farmed an estate at Hawes, and his wife, Isabella. He had at least three younger brothers. He was educated at the school of the blind Quaker mathematician John Gough at Kendal and proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was admitted as a sizar in 1813. He was made a scholar in 1816 and graduated BA as fourth wrangler in 1817, proceeding MA in 1820. From 1818 to 1836 Dawes was mathematical tutor, fellow, and bursar of the newly founded Downing College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1818 and also held the college living of Tadlow, Cambridgeshire, from 1820 to 1840. At this time Dawes was strongly influenced by the contemporary circle of notable Cambridge scientists, including William Whewell, John Henslow, and Adam Sedgwick.

Dawes is remembered for his seminal contribution to the development of applied science in elementary education: traditional teaching was replaced with heuristic learning and a rudimentary laboratory was established to promote the use of technical apparatus and simple scientific experiments. Dawes died of paralysis at the deanery, Hereford, on 10 March 1867, and was buried in the Ladye Arbour of the cathedral. He was survived by his wife.

References

* W. C. Henry, A biographical notice of the Very Revd Richard Dawes, dean of Hereford (1867)
* ‘Committee of council on education: minutes’, Parl. papers (1847–8), 50.4–14, no. 998 [schools inspected in southern district]
* ‘Select committee on scientific instruction’, Parl. papers (1867–8), 15.39, no. 432 [minutes of evidence]
* H. W. Pettit Stevens, Downing College (1899)
* J. W. Anderson, ‘A Hampshire village school’, ‘The illiterate Anglo-Saxon’ and other essays on education, medieval and modern (1946), 142–54
* Romilly's Cambridge diary, 1832–42: selected passages from the diary of the Rev. Joseph Romilly, ed. J. P. T. Bury (1967)
* S. French, The history of Downing College, Cambridge (1978)
* D. Layton, Science for the people (1973)
* N. Ball, ‘Richard Dawes and the teaching of common things’, Educational Review, 17/1 (Nov 1964), 59–68
* J. W. Cross, ed., George Eliot's life as related in her letters and journals, 1 (1885)
* E. Frankland, Sketches from the life of Edward Frankland, ed. M. N. W. and S. J. C. (privately printed, London, 1902)