eHive Object Details

Name/TitleRichard Hale Budd: Papers, 1849-1872 on pioneer work on education in Victoria

About this objectReports, correspondence and circulars on development and changes in the education system 1850 to 1872.

MS 004689: Four reports by Richard Budd bound together:
Normal Inspector Budd's triennial report register, St James Training School 1857-1858.
Half-yearly report 1858 with proposed new rules at back re efficiency of teacher training.
A condensed report, May 1859, from commencement of St James' 1856-31 March, 1859.
These reports are essentially a critique of the philosophy and practice of education in Victoria, in particular of standards of education and teacher training.

MS 004703 The Normal Inspector's report upon the plan for the examination of teachers proposed by the professors of the University, highlights the differences in attitude between R. Budd and the academics; Memorandum of Benjamin Kane re administration of staff under the Inspector General - July, 1872; List of pupil teachers employed under the Board 31st December 1854.

Correspondence includes:
A discussion of terms of vote re allocation of funds to denominational and national schools.
MS 004708: A letter from J. W. Kelsall requesting an increase in salary.
MS 004710: A draft Bill of 'Common Schools Act', 1862, framed by Richard Heales and assisted by R. Budd, with corrections and amendments (a Bill for the better Maintenance and Establishment of Common Schools in Victoria). [Heale Education Bill?]
MS 004717: Circulars re the religious question in education ,rules and regulations of the Local Board of St Paul's Church of England Schools, Ballarat, signed by G. Glendinning, Church of England Assembly Education Committee.
List of resolutions as the basis of a progress report (undated).
Memorandum, information to be circulated among the clergy of the Church of England and the Managers of her schools, May, 1858
An address to the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Melbourne by James Alipius, 20th March, 1854, includes resolutions by James Macoboy, H. Loughnan, D. McCarthy, J. O'Shanassy, E. Murphy and P. O'Brien.,

Richard Hale Budd (1816-1909), educationist, was born on 6 March 1816 at Kensington, London, the eldest son of Rev. Henry Budd, M.A., 1801 (Cantab.), rector of White Roding, Essex, and his wife Jane, née Hale. He was educated at Rugby under Dr Arnold in 1832-34, and on 20 June 1834 admitted to St John's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1838; M.A., 1881). There he was a member of the Lady Margaret Boat Club, which in 1837 was head of the river; in that year he also rowed for the successful Cambridge crew against the Leander Club on the Thames.

Deterred from being called to the English Bar by early indications of deafness, he tutored in England and attended the training institution for teachers at Westminster where he qualified for the teacher's certificate before leaving on 30 June 1840 for Victoria in the Eagle. He arrived on 20 October and went into partnership with the Pohlman brothers in a sheep run near Kyneton. This venture failed and he had no funds to resume his pastoral interests until 1857 when he acquired an interest in Oaklands station, ten miles from Mount Gambier. In 1842 Budd had turned to private tutoring, and in 1843 had a school at Meadow Bank near Campbell Town, Tasmania. There on 13 June he married Elizabeth, daughter of J. L. Purves; they had four sons and four daughters.

He returned to Melbourne in March 1846 to open a classical school in Victoria Parade, but two years later accepted an invitation by the first Anglican bishop of Melbourne, Dr Charles Perry, to become headmaster of the Melbourne Diocesan Grammar School which was built at Eastern Hill on land belonging to St Peter's Church and opened on 11 April 1849. The object of the school was to give 'a sound scriptural and general education available to all persons without any distinction'. In answer to public criticism that Budd was not a clergyman, Perry maintained that a lay headmaster was best suited to the aims of the school. Budd received a salary of £300 to £500 depending on the fees collected. His eldest son, Henry Hale, who later became a barrister in Melbourne, was the first of the 176 boys enrolled at the school. Difficulty in recruiting suitable staff for both the classroom and the boarding establishment in the gold rush led to the closing of the school in December 1854.

Budd had become an inspector on 18 November 1854 under the Denominational Schools Board, being designated 'normal' inspector when it began examining and classifying teachers in 1856. In that year he inaugurated a system of teacher training at St James's Church of England School in opposition to the National Board's training system at the Model School; later under his guidance Stephen Dixon created the St James's and St Paul's Training Institution. Budd was acting-secretary of the Denominational Board from 11 July 1855 to 31 March 1856 and from 17 May 1859 and was appointed secretary on 31 March 1860. Despite demands from the Chief Secretary's Office in 1861 that salaries be curtailed to match those of the National Board, Budd as chief executive officer of the Denominational system retained his salary of £1000. At this stage three-quarters of the colony's school children were attending Denominational schools.

While directing the larger part of the dual system Budd was prominent in the detailed framing of Richard Heales's Common Schools Act of 1862, by which an attempt was made to co-ordinate education in Victoria under a single board; he was appointed inspector-general on 6 October 1862. From the outset the Common Schools Board was hampered in its operations by conflicting demands from churchmen and secularists, and by small rival schools that proliferated uneconomically without reaching more than 60 per cent of school-age children. But the 1862 Act did not entirely fail and the secular Education Act of 1872, which replaced the board by a Department of Education under ministerial control, was also opposed by churchmen of all complexions. Budd had little sympathy with the new order or its instigators; he too was replaced and on 1 January 1873 granted a pension of £500.

Budd conducted classes for teachers on Saturday mornings at St Paul's schoolrooms and next year founded a classical school for young ladies in the Independent Hall, Russell Street, later opening a branch school at Brighton. In 1886 he gave up the Melbourne school and until the end of 1899 conducted the school at Brighton. He died at his Brighton home, Rooding, on 27 March 1909 and was buried in the Brighton cemetery. Predeceased by his wife, he was survived by two unmarried daughters, Mary and Emma.

An enthusiast for the English public school tradition, Budd regarded the years after his retirement from government office as the happiest of his life. An early supporter of the Church of England in Victoria, he was a member of the first council of the diocese and church assembly, and for twenty years a lay reader in the Cheltenham and Mordialloc districts.

RHSV Staff & Volunteers click here for AtoM

MakerBudd, Richard Hale, 1816-1909.

Maker RoleCompiler

Subject and Association KeywordsBudd, Richard Hale, 1816-1909

Subject and Association KeywordsChurch of England Assembly Education Committee

Subject and Association KeywordsSt James' Training School

Subject and Association KeywordsEducation inspectors

Subject and Association KeywordsTeachers and teaching

Subject and Association KeywordsSchools

Subject and Association KeywordsLegislation

Named CollectionManuscripts Collection

Credit LineDonated by Mary Elizabeth Budd, March 6th 1927.

Object TypeDocument

Object numberMS 004689, 004703, 004708, 004710, 004717 (Box 013-3)

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved