William Haig Brown

William Haig Brown (1823–1907) was an English cleric and reforming headmaster of Charterhouse School.

Life Born at Bromley by Bow, Middlesex, on 3 December 1823, he was third son of Thomas Brown of Edinburgh and his wife Amelia, daughter of John Haig, of the Haigs of Bemersyde. At age nine he went to Christ's Hospital, where he remained, first in the junior school at Hertford, and later on in London, until 1842.

In 1842 Haig Brown entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1846 as second in the first class in the classical tripos. Elected a fellow in October 1848 (M.A. 1849), and taking holy orders (deacon 1852 and priest 1853), he was engaged in college work until 1857, when he was appointed headmaster of Kensington School.

In 1863, on the resignation of Dr. Richard Elwyn, the Schoolmaster of Charterhouse School, Haig Brown was appointed his successor on 12 November, against tradition that the schoolmaster should have been educated at the school. In 1864 he proceeded LL.D. at Cambridge. That year the Public Schools' Commission recommended the school's removal from central London, a suggestion opposed by Acton Smee Ayrton. By circulating old Carthusians, Haig Brown gained support for the move, and also won over Lord Derby, an influential Charterhouse governor, and W. E. Gladstone, another.

Within a few years, in addition to the three houses originally built by the governors, eight others were erected by various masters, until by September 1876 the number of boys had grown to 500, when it was limited. In 1874 the school chapel was consecrated, and additions were then made to the school: class-rooms, a hall, a museum, and new playing-fields. Haig Brown retired in 1897: he had neither sought nor received ecclesiastical preferment. Rosalind Mabel Haig Brown who was headmistress of Oxford High School for 30 years, was their daughter. Alan Haig-Brown was their son.