Michael George Glazebrook

Michael George Glazebrook was a former Headmaster of Clifton College, later a Canon of Ely, and is reputed to have once held the world record for the High Jump.

Early life

Michael George Glazebrook was born in 1853^[1]. He was the son of M. G. Glazebrook and first cousin of the famous mathematician and physicist Richard Tetley Glazebrook and brother of the portrait painter Hugh de T Glazebrook. Like his cousin, he studied at Dulwich College^[2] and went on to study at Balliol College, Oxford in both Classics and Maths, where he received First Class Honours.

Sporting Achievement

At Oxford Glazebrook was an athletics blue. He won the Varsity Match High Jump in 1875^[3] and went on to become the British Amateur Champion in that year^[4] Prior to 1912, the high jump world record was not ratified by the IAAF and therefore there is only an unofficial progression. However, on 22 March 1875 Glazebrook is said to have jumped 1.80m (equally a mark set by Marshall Brooks) which at the time was the highest thus far attained.^[5]

Clifton College

In 1891 he became the Headmaster of Clifton College^[1]. This post was one that had been held by two previous appointments, John Percival and James Maurice Wilson, both of whom had encouraged science as a subject at the school (which still today has a strong tradition having had three Nobel laureates). Having studied classics and mathematics^[6] at Balliol College, Oxford, Glazebrook seemed the ideal candidate. He held the post until 1905. However, he has been described in this role as having been a regrettably forbidding man, nicknamed “The Bogey” by his pupils.^[7] Although he was successful in maintaining excellent academic standards and a high moral tone, and although he had a reputation for having promoted music in the school, he was not popular and this was reflected in the steady decline in numbers at Clifton during his time.^[7]

The pride in his earlier sporting achievements was evident in the fact that his medals were framed and hung outside his Clifton study for all to see.^[7]

Canon of Ely

He held the office of Canon of Ely from 1905 to 1926. During this time he chaired the Governing Body of Ripon Hall from 1919 to 1924.^[1] He graduated with a Doctor of Divinty (D.D.). ^[8]

Family and later life

On 29 July 1880 he married Ethel Brodie, the daughter of Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 2nd Bt. and Philothea Margaret Thompson, He died on 1 May 1926.^[8]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Mark D. Chapman, Ambassadors of Christ, 2004, page 96, (Ashgate Publishing Ltd)
2. ^ Webster F.A.M., (1937), Our Great Public Schools, page 95, (Butler & Tanner: London)
3. ^ Achilles Club records
4. ^ Official Site of the Achilles Club
5. ^ World Record Progression High Jump
6. ^ Science at Clifton
7. ^ ^{a b c} Old Cliftonian Society
8. ^ ^{a b} Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 515.

Further reading

• Obituary - Times, 3 May 1926, p8
• Obituary - Guardian, 26 May 1926, p393
• Major, "Michael George Glazebrook (1853 - 1926)", Modern Churchman; 46 (1956), pp 307-8
• Norman Whatley, "Michael George Glazebrook (1853 - 1926)", Dictionary of National Biography 1922-1930, London:Oxford University Press, 1937, pp. 340-341

Academic offices
Preceded by James Maurice Wilson	Headmaster of Clifton College 1891–1905	Succeeded by Albert Augustus David

Persondata
Name	Glazebrook, Michael George
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1853
Place of birth
Date of death	1926
Place of death