Philip Magnus - Biography

Biography

After studying at University College School and University College London, where he took first-class honours in both arts and science, Magnus chose to take up a religious career. An active member of the Jewish Reform movement, he spent three years studying at the University of Berlin, then a centre of reformist thought, and returned to London to take up a post as assistant rabbi at the West London Synagogue in 1866.

During his time as rabbi, Magnus supplemented his income by teaching private students, which grew steadily into a regular occupation. He held a lectureship at Stockwell teacher training college, taught at University College London, and examined prospective teachers for the College of Preceptors. In 1880, he finally left his rabbinical work to become director of the newly formed City and Guilds of London Institute. He oversaw the rapid growth of the institute, focusing his attentions on the technical education departments, of which he became Superintendent in 1888; he would hold this post until retiring in 1915.

Outside of the Institute, Magnus was influential in setting national education policy; he sat on the Samuelson Commission (the Royal Commission on Technical Instruction) of 1884, and for his work here was knighted in 1886. The Commission's report led to the Technical Instruction Act 1889, which supported local authorities in creating technical schools around the country. He encouraged the reform of primary and secondary state education in London, and helped oversee the merger of the City and Guilds Institute into the newly formed Imperial College of Science and Technology.

In the 1906 general election, he was elected to Parliament as a Liberal Unionist, representing the London University constituency. He narrowly defeated Sir Michael Foster, a prominent Cambridge physiologist, by twenty-four votes. Foster was a Liberal, who on his initial election had joined the Liberal Unionists and supported Salisbury's Conservative government; however, he later crossed the floor to rejoin the Liberals, in large part due to his opposition to the 1902 educational reforms. Magnus was reelected in 1910, and on the demise of the Liberal Unionists in 1912 joined the Conservative Party. He held the seat in 1918 – where he defeated Sidney Webb – but did not seek reelection in 1922.

In retirement, he continued to sit as a member of the Senate of the University of London, and chaired the council of the Royal Society of Arts. He was a governor of the Northampton Institute and Royal Grammar School, Guildford, and a vice president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and Jews' College.