City of London School - Headmasters

Headmasters

The school has had thirteen headmasters. The first was Rev J. A. Giles, a scholar of Anglo-Saxon history and a Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who also wrote a number of scholarly works, including the 34 volume Patres ecclesiæ Anglicanæ. He was however, "temperamentally unsuited" to be headmaster of the school, and was replaced by Rev Dr G. F. Mortimer, a liberal who had written an anti-slavery pamphlet. Mortimer's religious tolerance led him to open the school to boys from Jewish families. He was replaced in 1865 by a former boy, Edwin Abbott Abbott, author of the novella Flatland. Abbott oversaw the education of future Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, before retiring in 1889 to devote himself to literary and theological pursuits. In 1950 Dr. Arthur Willoughby Barton a scholar and top-class football referee, took over as headmaster until 1965. The current head is David R. Levin, who, from September 2009, became the chair of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.