ARNOLD, THOMAS (1823-1900), a son of Dr Arnold, of Rugby, was born at Laleham, Middlesex, when his father was rector there. Educated at Winchester and Rugby, he was a contemporary of Thomas Hughes and at University College, Oxford, of Clough, Jowett and Shairp. He graduated in 1845 and commenced to read law, but accepted a post in the Colonial Office (1847). In 1848 he came to New Zealand in the John Wickliffe, expecting to take up land purchased by his father from the New Zealand Company. He exchanged his father's sections at Makara for land on the Porirua road, but the trustees forbade the exchange. On the advice of Domett he started a school in Nelson, but was soon attracted to Tasmania by the offer of a position as inspector of schools (1849). His book, Passages in a Wandering Life, published in 1900, gives interesting sidelights on New Zealand society in the forties. Becoming a follower of the Oxford Movement, Arnold left Tasmania for England in 1856 and joined the Roman Catholic church. He was professor of English literature at the Roman Catholic University in Dublin. There he wrote his Manual of English Literature, Historical and Critical. He followed Cardinal Newman to Edgbaston, teaching at the Birmingham Oratory School. In 1882 he was elected a fellow of the Royal University of Ireland, and appointed professor of English in University College, St Stephen's Green. Arnold brought out editions of many English classics. He died on 12 Nov 1900. His eldest daughter was the novelist, Mrs Humphrey Ward.

D.N.B.; Hocken, Bibliog.; D. Cowie in N.Z. Railways Magazine, Jan 1937.

Reference: Volume 1, page 26

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