Aubrey Samuel Langley: Schools, Masculinity and Settler Insecurity in Natal in the First Quarter of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Abstract Within his social millieu, Aubrey Langley was lauded as one South Africa’s finest headmasters. He served as headmaster of Durban High School (DHS) from 1910 to 1939. He was feared and loved with a reputation for fierce discipline, devotion to the game of rugby and a love of classical education. In this paper we explore his place in the history of colonial Natal and explain how a man renowned for thrashing his pupils had the wholehearted support of parents and the Natal settler community more broadly. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, Natal was witness to three major armed conflicts, the Second South African war, the Bhambatha Rebellion and the First World War. In the wake of the earlier catastrophic defeat at Isandhlwana in 1879 the settler population needed no persuasion that war-readiness should be a key part in the education of its boys. We argue that the commitment to muscular Christianity, team sport and corporal punishment rested on settler insecurity and a preoccupation with the precariousness of white rule. In this climate, Aubrey Langley was considered a potential saviour and his excesses readily excused and his triumphs lionised.