Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Elder, Edward
ELDER, EDWARD (1812–1858), headmaster of Charterhouse School, the son of John Edward Elder of Barbadoes, was born on 1 Oct. 1812. At the age of twelve he was sent to Charterhouse, where he remained till 1830, when he gained an open scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford. There he took first class honours in literis humanioribus and won the Ellerton theological essay prize. He graduated B.A. 1834, M.A. 1836, D.D. 1853. He held a tutorial appointment at Balliol till 1839, when he became headmaster of Durham Cathedral grammar school. This school, which he found in a languishing condition, he may be said to have made. So great was his success as a teacher and his popularity among his pupils, that when in 1853, on the nomination of Dr. Saunders to the deanery of Peterborough, he was appointed head-master of Charterhouse, many of the Durham boys, among them Professor Nettleship, migrated to London with him. At Charterhouse he worked no less hard than at Durham, but he was prevented from giving full scope to his abilities by occasional attacks of illness, which necessitated his absence from the school. Latterly his mind altogether gave way. On 6 April 1858 he died. A tablet to his memory was placed by some of his friends and pupils in Charterhouse Chapel, immediately facing the founder's tomb. Beyond contributing several articles to Smith's 'Dictionary of Classical Biography and Mythology,' Elder published nothing.
[List of Carthusians, 1879; Haig-Brown's Charterhouse, Past and Present, 1879, p. 156; Times 9 April 1858; information kindly supplied by Dr. Haig-Brown and Canon Elwin.]