Montague Rendall

Montague John Rendall (6 May 1862 – 5 October 1952) was an English classical scholar and schoolmaster, head of Winchester College from 1911 to 1928.

In retirement, he was a Governor of the BBC and was busy in many other organizations.

Early life

Born in Great Rollright, Oxfordshire,[1] the fourth son of the Rev. Henry Rendall, Rector of the village, Rendall was educated at Elstree, Harrow School, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a Foundation Scholar and was also Bell University Scholar in 1882. He was placed in the First Division of the First Class in the Classical Tripos of 1884 (Part I) and again in 1885 (Part II), and while at Cambridge in 1884 and 1885 played soccer in the first Eleven of the Cambridge University A. F. C.; he also went on to play for the Corinthians.[2]

Career

Rendall was appointed as an Assistant Master at Winchester College in 1887 and remained there for 37 years. In 1899, he was appointed as Second Master and then in 1911 as Headmaster, retiring at the end of the summer term of 1924.[2][3]

A devotee of Italian painting and sculpture, Rendall inspired his pupil Kenneth Clark to appreciate the work of Giotto, Botticelli, Bellini, and others.[4]

The Winchester College War Cloister was a project of Rendall's to commemorate the 500 Wykehamists killed in the First World War.[5]

In his early retirement, from 1924 to 1926, Rendall made tours of the British Empire for the Rhodes Trustees.[2]

In 1926, Rendall bought the freehold of the mediaeval gatehouse of Butley Abbey, Sudbourne, Suffolk, and lived there for the rest of his life, spending "his last penny" on restoring it "with imagination and scholarly care".[6][7]

In October 1926, Rendall was named as one of the five members of the newly constituted Board of Governors of the BBC, with the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Gainford, Sir Gordon Nairne, and Mrs Philip Snowden.[8] It was later reported that Clarendon was a Conservative, Gainford a Liberal, and Snowden a Labour supporter, while "Sir Gordon Nairne and Dr. Montague Rendall take no interest in any particular Party."[9] In 1927, at the suggestion of Rendall, the BBC chose for itself the motto "Nation shall speak peace unto nation", inspired by a verse from the Book of Isaiah, "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares".[10] Rendall was vice-chairman of the BBC from 1927 to 1933, when he retired.[2] At the end of 1931, it was reported that as a governor of the BBC Rendall was paid £700 a year,[11] equivalent to £39,456 in 2023.

Rendall was vice-president of the Over-Seas League, the Royal Empire Society, and Framlingham College; Chairman of the League of Empire, the Public Schools Empire Tours Committee, and North Foreland Lodge; a Member of the Education Committee of East Suffolk County Council; and a Trustee of the Boyton Almshouses.[2]

Private life

In 1921, while a single man living in the Headmaster's House at Winchester College, Rendall had living with him a butler, a housekeeper, and five other indoor servants.[1]

He was a member of the Athenæum Club, the Royal Empire Society, and the English-Speaking Union. He stated his recreations as walking and cycling.[2] He died unmarried.[5]

Honours

Selected publications

  • Schools of Hellas: An Essay on the Practice and Theory of Ancient Greek Education from 600 to 300 B.C. by Kenneth John Freeman, ed. Montague John Rendall (London: Macmillan & Co., 1907)
  • Sinai in Spring, or, The Best Desert in the World (London: Dent & Sons, 1911)
  • The Bells of Great Rollright (Winchester: Warren and Son, 1947)

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Montague John Rendall", in 1921 United Kingdom census, Headmaster's House, St Mary's College, Winchester, at Ancestry.com (which states Rendall's place of birth), accessed 1 January 2026 (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Rendall, Montague John", Who Was Who, online edition by Oxford University Press published online 1 December 2007, accessed 1 January 2026 (subscription required)
  3. ^ "Winchester Headmaster", East African Standard (Nairobi, Kenya), Saturday 3 June 1911, p. 9: "London, May 29. Mr. John Montague Rendall, M. A. who has been Second Master since 1899, has been appointed Headmaster of Winchester College in succession to Rev. H. M. Burge."
  4. ^ Meryle Secrest, Kenneth Clark: A Biography (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985), p. 39
  5. ^ a b J. D'E. Firth, Rendall of Winchester: The Life and Witness of a Teacher (Geoffrey Cumberledge and Oxford University Press, 1954), pp. 171-188 and Plate V-VI
  6. ^ "Notes on the Rendall Family", Manfamily.org
  7. ^ "History", butleypriory.co.uk
  8. ^ "THE NEW B.B.C. NAMES OF BOARD OF FIVE GOVERNORS", Lancashire Evening Post, Saturday 23 October 1926, p. 2
  9. ^ "Who Goes to the B.B.C.?", Evening News (London), Thursday 13 February 1930, p. 8
  10. ^ "Nation shall speak peace unto nation", Portsmouth Evening News, Saturday 15 February 2003, p. 41
  11. ^ Sydney A. Moseley, "B. B. C. Governors", Daily Herald, Monday 28 December 1931, p. 9
  12. ^ The London Gazette, Supplement 33675, 30 December 1930, p. 5, col. 2
  13. ^ The London Gazette, Issue 34470, 4 January 1938, p. 29, col. 2
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