Home  Catalogue Harrow
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Harrow |
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In 1897, as today, one applied to the individual housemasters at Harrow. Successful applicants had to demonstrate a reading knowledge of Latin and Greek. In the late nineteenth century loyalty to individual houses was not strong, so while Barry's father had attended Druries House (1872–75), Barry himself was sent to The Park – an eighteenth century mansion on the High Street whose grounds had originally been landscaped by Capability Brown.
In Barry's time The Park was under the housemaster G.H. Hallam, an experienced teacher then in his mid-fifties. Hallam was also acting as an unofficial bursar for the school so he probably had little patience for petty squabbles but he would have been kind and sensible, if rather preoccupied.
As a new boy Barry would have been required to fag for older boys. While bullying was common in public schools, at Harrow it was not as vicious and institutionalized as it would have been at similar establishments. Almost unique among public schools Harrow had no dormitories; the 40 boys attending The Park would have lived two or three to a room Ð this cut down on the bullying and encouraged the formation of genuine friendships.
Though Harrow is not known for artist alumni, it did offer drawing classes. For artistic boys like Barry who might have wanted to study the art of the past, its Butler Museum also provided an extensive collection of Egyptian artifacts and huge portfolios of photographs of European paintings.
As with much else in his life, Barry's years at Harrow are a mystery. The academic work wasn't strenuous so boys could coast along without drawing much attention to themselves, and it appears that this is just what Barry did. He passed nearly two years at the school and left barely a trace. He does not feature in the Headmaster's Punishment book, nor does he feature in the Log book which recorded sporting triumphs. He had nothing to do with the school newspaper even though his closest friend helped edit it, and in later alumni publications his entry is the shortest possible, indicating only the dates of his arrival and departure.
Despite such extraordinary anonymity, Barry seems to have had some sort of breakdown while he was at the school. Letters from his family refer to his 'illness' and question his mental stability. As Harrow kept no medical archives at that time it is impossible to ascertain just what form this illness took, though a letter indicates Barry requested photographs of his mother while he was at the school.
It is likely that Barry suffered what is now known as a typical adolescent 'identity crisis'. He had little interest in cricket or classics, the two areas in which the school excelled. He demonstrated neither his father's academic prowess, nor his grandfather's diplomatic skills. Nor did he show any interest in the hunting and fishing pursued by other members of his class. It would hardly be surprising if Barry was nervous about the future.
This natural anxiety must have been compounded by a feeling of exclusion from his father's new family. Letters show that while his step-mother referred to him by such demeaning endearments as 'Claudums', 'Claudie', 'Dear Child', and signed herself 'Mummy', he replied to her as 'My Dear Stepmother'.
A friend in his later life suggested Barry might have manufactured a crisis at Harrow to get his father's attention. Given the way mental problems were treated in the late nineteenth century, this seems unlikely. It wasn't until after the First World War that psychological disorders were taken seriously; in Barry's youth a breakdown would have been viewed with fear and contempt. People with grave psychological problems were isolated in asylums; lesser cases of depressive or irrational behaviour, especially among school boys, often met with punishment. The fact that Barry was neither punished nor sent to an asylum suggests that his breakdown was not serious. In fact, after leaving Harrow he corresponded for many years with his housemate Harold Beresford-Hope; their letters are filled with school gossip, suggesting that Barry retained an Old Boy's affection for the place.
Nonetheless, Francis Barry did leave Harrow in the summer term of 1899, when he was not yet sixteen years old. While it was unusual for a student to leave after only two years at the school, it certainly wasn't unique. Barry's own father had stayed only three years, and many boys left after a single year. Perhaps Barry's premature departure was as a result of his mysterious breakdown, or perhaps he simply wasn't progressing at school. Whatever the reason, Barry left Harrow in July 1899, and some months later was touring Europe.
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