1849 –25/01/1907
A talented mathematician and musician and Second Master at Berkhamsted School
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Research:
Plot 27 Charles James Langley (1850-1907)
Charles was born in 1849 in Scaldwell, Northants, to James and Mary (née Mee) Langley. His father was a farmer and fellmonger (producer and dealer in hides).
In 1861 Charles was a boarder at a large private boys’ school run by a Mr Kingston in Abingdon Street, Northampton.
On 10 December 1864 The Northampton Mercury reported on an entertainment given at the schoolroom, St Katherine’s church. Charles, aged 15, “a pupil at Mr Kingston’s school” was “encored in both his pianoforte solos, which were played with great skill and ability considering the age of the performer.”
Charles was Exhibitioner, Foundation Scholar and Thorpe Scholar of Emmanuel College and took his degree in 1872 as 15th Wrangler (i.e. a student who gains first class honours in the Mathematical Tripos competition.) He obtained a second class theological degree in 1873
and was ordained a minister of the Church of England on 8 June 1873 in Peterborough cathedral.
From 1873 to 1875 he was Curate of St Giles’, Northampton. After two years as Curate of Higher Tranmere, Cheshire, he came to Berkhamsted School as Second Master and Senior Mathematical Master in 1880 under the headmastership of Edward Bartrum. Bartrum retired in 1889 and was succeeded by the famous Headmaster, Dr T.C. Fry. Charles was a teacher at the school for16 years until 1896. J. S. Morgan, a fellow teacher at the school, remembered Charles as “a great mathematician, a mighty hitter on the cricket field, a fine musician and a great humourist.”
During Charles’ time at the school a choir was formed for whom Charles acted as organist and choirmaster. His obituary published in the Berkhamstedian, the school magazine, observed “His versatility was remarkable, for in addition to excelling as a mathematician, he was a good Hebrew scholar, a fine chess player, a finished skater, a brilliant pianist and violinist, and a composer of considerable skill and taste.”
Charles was lodging in Castle Street at the time of the 1881 census.
His father died in 1882 and is buried here. Charles became a freemason in 1885, joining the United Grand Lodge in Berkhamsted. He was also president of the Mechanics Institute. By 1891 Charles and his mother were living in Raven’s Lane. His mother died in 1895.
Charles left Berkhamsted School in 1896. A later Headmaster, Garnons Williams, in his book ‘A History of Berkhamsted School1541 -1972’ conjectured that Charles may have left after falling out with Fry: “The remarkably quiet departure of Langley after sixteen years as Second Master suggests some breach with Fry, who otherwise would surely have paid a tribute to him on Founder’s Day.”
Garnons Williams further reported that Charles “…left to be Chaplain at Weimar. Subsequently he acted as curate to Bartrum at Wakes Colne, and then, according to the Cambridge records ‘disappeared from Crockford’.” (Crockford’s Clerical Directory)
Sadly, at some point Charles became an alcoholic and the 1901 census records him as a patient in the Hancox Home For Inebriates in Watlington, near Battle in East Sussex. This may account for his disappearance from Crockford as related by Garnons Williams.
What happened to him subsequently has not been traced, but he died 25 January 1907 in Watford aged 57 and was buried here with his parents.
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