Thomas Hughes

Thomas Hughes 1822-96, English author. A lawyer, Hughes eventually became a judge; he was also a Liberal member of Parliament and worked assiduously for social reforms. His novel of school life, Tom Brown's School Days (1857), is a classic. Its sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford (1861), was less successful.

Hughes, Thomas (1822–96), educated at Oriel College, Oxford, was a barrister and Liberal MP and, under the influence of F. D. Maurice, devoted much energy to Working Men's Education, the Co-operative movement, etc. He is remembered as the author of Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857, by ‘An Old Boy’), which evokes the Rugby of his youth and his veneration for its headmaster, Dr T. Arnold. Hughes condemned, in the character of the tyrannical Flashman, the bullying prevalent in public schools of the day, and advocated a form of what came to be known as ‘muscular Christianity’, which attempted to combine Christian principles with physical courage, self-reliance, love of sport, school loyalty, and patriotism, a mixture that had much impact on the public school ethos. Hughes wrote several biographies, memoirs, one other novel, and various sermons and addresses.

Hughes, Thomas (1822–96) English novelist. A Christian socialist, Hughes is best known for the novel Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), a semi-fictional account of his education under Thomas Arnold at Rugby School.