Charles Cruttwell

Charles Thomas Cruttwell (1847–1911) was an English cleric, headmaster and classical scholar, known as a historian of Roman literature.

Life He was born in London on 30 July 1847, eldest son of Charles James Cruttwell, barrister-at-law, of the Inner Temple, and his wife Elizabeth Anne, daughter of Admiral Thomas Sanders. Educated under James Augustus Hessey at Merchant Taylors' School, London (1861–6), he went on with a foundation scholarship to St John's College, Oxford, in 1866. Placed in the first class in classical moderations in 1868 and in literæ humaniores in 1870, he obtained the Pusey and Ellerton Hebrew scholarship in 1869, won the Craven scholarship for classics in 1871, and the Kennicott Hebrew Scholarship in 1872. He graduated B.A. in 1871, proceeding M.A. in 1874, and was classical moderator (1873–5). Meanwhile, he was elected fellow of Merton College in 1870, and was tutor there 1874–7.

Ordained deacon by the bishop of Oxford in 1875 and priest in 1876, Cruttwell was curate of St Giles', Oxford, from 1875 till 1877 when he left for Bradfield College, where he was headmaster. In 1880 he moved on to the headmastership of Malvern College, resigning in 1885 to become rector of Sutton, Surrey. A few months later he was appointed rector of Denton, Norfolk, and in 1891 he accepted from Merton College the benefice of Kibworth-Beauchamp in succession to Edmund Knox. While at Kibworth he was also rector of Smeeton-Westerby, Leicestershire (1891–4), rural dean of Gartree (1892–1902), examining chaplain to the bishop of Peterborough (1900), and proctor in convocation (1900).