Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Percival, John
PERCIVAL, JOHN (1834–1918), schoolmaster and bishop, the son of William Percival, a Westmorland ‘statesman’ (that is, a farmer who owned his land), by his wife, Jane, daughter of William Langmire, of Bolton, Westmorland, was born at Brough Sowerby, Westmorland, 27 September 1834, and educated at Appleby grammar school. He had a strenuous boyhood, ‘trudging to and from school in his clogs, with a blue linen bag of books over his shoulder’, and, in his spare hours, working on the farm. To the end he retained a strong northern accent which suited well his grave and rather melancholy voice. In 1855 he went as an open scholar to Queen's College, Oxford, where he gained the Junior Mathematical scholarship and double first classes (classics and mathematics) both in moderations and in ‘greats’. Immediately after taking his degree he was elected a fellow of his college; but under the strain of spare living and hard work his health broke down temporarily and he was ordered abroad to Pau. There he first met his future wife, Louisa Holland, whom he married in 1862 and by whom he had six children. In 1860 he accepted a mastership at Rugby and, two years later, on Dr. Temple's recommendation, he was appointed first head master of Clifton College. His success was immediate and complete. In less than ten years Clifton had won a recognized place among the great public schools. He was a master builder and, like Dr. Arnold, whose views on education he largely shared, he set the stamp of his personality so deeply on the place that time has not effaced it. ‘One great centre’, wrote Canon J. M. Wilson, ‘from which his influence radiated was the chapel pulpit. His words, somehow, rang true in the ears of the not naturally religious boy and enlisted him on the side of right, of public spirit, of purity, of large-heartedness and courage, of virtues which appeal to a boy. Two things struck me specially about the boys. One was their modesty and good manners, and the other was their high standard of industry and intelligence.’ And his ascendancy over the parents was as great as his ascendancy over the boys. In 1879 he left Clifton to become president of Trinity College, Oxford, a post which he subsequently combined with a canonry at Bristol (1882–1887), vacating at the same time a prebendal stall in Exeter Cathedral which he had held since 1871. The atmosphere of Oxford was not wholly congenial to him. He was impatient for reforms, and less in sympathy with the average undergraduate than with the schoolboy. Bishop Gore, recalling this period, says: ‘We felt that a strong righteous will was expressing itself amongst us with profound astonishment at our being content to be such fools as we were.’ In spite, however, of some friction, he left a permanent mark on the college and was largely responsible for its rapid growth and intellectual success. In university politics he had two causes specially at heart—the University Extension movement, of which he was a vigorous pioneer, and the higher education of women. He was a prime mover in the foundation of Somerville College and became the first president of its council.
In November 1886 Percival was offered, and accepted, the head mastership of Rugby, and took up his new duties in May 1887. He found much to do, and set about the task with characteristic energy, creating, reforming, and transforming. To quote one of the masters, ‘under Percival we were always moving towards noble ends along a sure road; but he sometimes forced the pace to such an extent that we almost dropped from fatigue’. After seven years the strain began to tell on his health, and in February 1895 he accepted the bishopric of Hereford, which was offered him by Lord Rosebery.
As bishop he was a courageous but rather lonely figure. His views on ecclesiastical, social, and political questions (he was a strong liberal) were not those of his clergy, and he was too earnest a champion of whatever he believed to be truth to keep silence or tolerate compromise. Nor did he find in a rural diocese much scope for the gifts of initiative and organization which were peculiarly his own. But his fearlessness, his sincerity, his generosity and invariable courtesy, won him the personal affection of many and the respect of all. In 1896 he lost his first wife, and in 1899 married Mary Symonds, an old family friend. In 1917 his powers were fast failing and he retired to Oxford, where he died on 3 December 1918.
He was buried, as was fitting, in Clifton chapel, for Clifton was his greatest achievement, and it was as a head master that he influenced most the life of his generation. Keenly alive to new educational requirements, he was above all a great spiritual force, with a passion for righteousness and a deep conviction of the serious purpose of life. Perhaps boys breathed more comfortably than men in the strenuous atmosphere that surrounded him. ‘He was universally and profoundly respected, and he was feared, not with terror, but with awe; and in a sense—the deepest sense—he was loved.’ So writes his biographer, a former pupil at Rugby, and a head master could receive no higher tribute.
There is a portrait of Percival by Hugh Riviere at Trinity College, Oxford. Another, by G. F. Watts, is in the possession of the family.
[W. Temple, Life of Bishop Percival, 1921; personal knowledge.]