WILLIAM

See also:

• ROGERS, HENRY DARWIN (18o8—1866)
• ROGERS, JAMES EDWIN THOROLD (1823-1890)
• ROGERS, JOHN (1627–c. 1665)
• ROGERS, JOHN (1829-1904)
• ROGERS, JOHN (c. 1500-1555)
• ROGERS, ROBERT (1727-1784?)
• ROGERS, S
• ROGERS, SAMUEL (1763-1855)
• WILLIAM ROGERS (1819-1896)

ROGERS (1819-1896)  , English clergyman and educational reformer, was born in London on the 24th of November 1819, the son of a barrister . Educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford, he entered Durham University in 1842, to study theology, and was ordained in 1843 . In 1845 he was appointed to St Thomas Charterhouse, where he remained for eighteen years, throwing , himself passionately into the work of education of his poor, degraded and often criminal parishioners . He began by establishing a school for ragamuffins in a blacksmith's abandoned shed, and with the generous help of friends he gradually extended its scope until the whole parish was a network of schools . In 1858 he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission to inquire into popular education, and he was returned a representative of the London School Board after the passing of Forster's Act in 187o . In 1863 the bishop of London -gave him the living of St Botolph Bishopsgate . Rogers was also made a prebendary of St Paul's, and in 1857 he had been appointed Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen . Having largely solved at St Thomas's the problem of elementary education, at Bishopsgate Rogers tackled the no less difficult one of middle-class schools . He believed in secular education, leaving doctrinal training to parents and clergy . To the cry against " godless education," Rogers impulsively replied, " Hang theology; let us begin "; and his nickname of " Hang-theology Rogers " stuck to him for the rest of his life . The Cowper Street Schools, costing £20,000, were the practical result of his energy . His next great work was the reconstruction of Edward Alleyn's charity at Dulwich .

The new college was opened in 1870; new buildings were erected for the

lower school, and the lion's share of the work fell upon Rogers . The culmination of his labours was the opening, on his seventy-fifth birthday, of the Bishops-gate Institute, including a hall, with accommodation for 500 people and a reference and lending library . On the same day a portrait and gift of plate was made him at the Mansion House, before a distinguished gathering . Lord Rosebery, then Prime Minister, observed in his speech that though bishoprics and deaneries had not been the rector's lot, there was not a poor Jew in Houndsditch or Petticoat Lane whose face would not brighten when he saw him coming . When he died, on the 19th of January 1896, this might have served as an appropriate epitaph .