Emma Dale
(nee Ross)

Langham and Howard
sons of
Sir Langham & Emma

Sir Langham Dale's
death notice

Dale, Sir Langham
(Kingsclere, North Hants., Eng., 22.5.1826 - Montagu Cottage, Mowbray, Cape, SA 12.1.1898)

Second superintendent-general of education in the Cape Colony, was the son of Henry Dale, registrar of Kingsclere, and his wife, Mary Anna Stroud, daughter of Edward Stroud, of Thatcham. He was named after his grandmother, Martha Langham.

The intercession of a gentleman farmer gave him admission to Christ's Hospital, the well-known London school, and in 1844, after the successful completion of his studies there, a Thomson bursary carried him to Queen's college, Oxford.

In May 1848, having taken his B.A. (second-class honours) in mathematics, he, on the recommendation of Sir John Herschel, was appointed professor of English and classics at the South African college, Cape Town, where decay had set in and the sole professor, Dr James Adamson, was having difficulty in maintaining instruction.

On 10.8.1848 Dale landed at Cape Town, to be sadly disillusioned by the prevailing confusion which he found when he began his new duties. He soon clashed with Adamson and the struggle between them came to a climax in April 1849, the situation being so grave that Dale made a direct approach to the governor, Sir Harry Smith, to whom he revealed the deplorable condition of the college and suggested desirable remedies. After fierce disputation a considerable number of reforms were introduced at the college, and Dale went ahead with further reorganization as soon as Adamson resigned in October 1850. The various departments were clearly demarcated and each subject was allotted its due time and place. Dale did his work so thoroughly that in 1858, when he found it necessary to apply for a year's leave, he received general and generous praise. The college council mentioned its appreciation of how he had set the institution on its feet once more, while the Cape colonial office sent a letter praising him for his services and also his conscientious work as a member of the board of examiners.

On 20.4.1858 he sailed for England. Although on sick-leave, he had been instructed by the superintendent-general of education, James Rose Innes, to visit some of the normal colleges and better conducted schools there and to report on them.

As a result Dale, having investigated the organization and methods of various British educational institutions and schools, made his findings known in 1859, in a Cape parliamentary publication, Papers containing the results of an inquiry by Mr Professor Dale, of the South African college, into the recent improvements in the economy of certain of the educational institutions in Great Britain (G.30-'59).

When Rose Innes retired (21.11.1859), Dale was the obvious person to succeed him. In contrast to his predecessor he enjoyed fairly extensive powers. The establishment of a body which would supervise education generally had already been contemplated, but, when serious consideration was given to the installation of a council of education simultaneously with his appointment, he took care to smother every move in that direction. The later and highly unpopular system of 'one-man rule' in Cape education originated in the freedom allowed him during his administration.

The three important educational commissions of 1863, 1879 and 1891-92 delivered their reports during his term of office. He was himself a member of the Watermeyer commission of 1863, the report and recommendations of which formed the basis of the Cape Educational act of 1865. Owing to his first-hand knowledge of the working of the existing educational system, he was also one of the commission's most important witnesses. The application of this act of 1865 involved one of his major achievements - both starting the state-aided schools and making them flourish, just when the colony was in the midst of the depression of 1865-71, the longest and most severe of the nineteenth century. His infinite patience, tact and faith brought the system safely through these difficult times to replace Sir John Herschel's outmoded one.

Although the original notion had not been his, in April 1873 Dale made a fervent plea, in the Cape Monthly Magazine, for the establishment of district boarding-schools, so that education might be brought within the reach of the outlying country districts. His call did not fall on deaf ears for, before the end of the year, the first district boarding-schools had been established, a typical example being the well-known one under M. J. Stucki at Blauwvallei, Wellington.

But Dale's efforts on behalf of education were not restricted to the ordinary primary and secondary schools under his direct control. With the progress of education after 1839 the necessity for establishing an examining body to set and conduct examinations, had been increasingly felt. In 1855 A. N. E. Changuion had brought the matter before a parliamentary select committee and on 22.10.1857 Sir George Grey required Adv. E. B. Watermeyer, James Rose Innes, then still superintendent-general, and Dale, then still a professor, to consider and report on the institution of a board of examiners. The report appeared on 8.12.1857 and act no. 4 of 5.6.1858, which was based on it, brought a board of examiners in arts and science into being in 1859, to issue first and second class certificates.

In 1867, when Dale became the second chairman of the board, he speedily realized that the time had come to replace the board with a more advanced body and began to put his ideas concerning the new institution in writing with increasing clarity and purposefulness. In March 1873 he declared that the board should be replaced with an examining university able to confer academic degrees as did those overseas. From this time he employed both tongue and pen to stress, far and wide, the necessity for such an examining university.

As a result the government appointed a commission to investigate the matter, with Dale himself as chairman. On 26.6.1873 the Cape parliament passed act no. 16 of 1873, establishing the University of the Cape of Good Hope, the first university in South Africa. Dale was elected vice-chancellor at the first meeting of the university council, and in September 1890, shortly before his retirement as superintendent-general of education, he became chancellor.

Serious opposition was aroused by the ideas and proposals which he had enunciated, as early as 1875, concerning the establishment of an autonomous teaching university, and the relevant bill, drawn up by himself, was far ahead of its time. Meanwhile it was inevitable that his attention would be drawn to the so-called colleges that had to prepare candidates for examination by the new university. The natural consequence of the creation of that institution was that the existing colleges had to achieve satisfactory status.

Dale had already written a letter, on 12.1.1874, to the Cape colonial secretary, in which he pointed out that the question of state aid to colleges and institutions for higher education required his attention. Thenceforth he did all he could for the promotion and propagation of the subject. Once again he drew up a bill that was largely accepted. The authorities took note of his recommendations regarding the future position of the colleges, for at that time there was no one better qualified to point out weaknesses there, or in the system of higher education.

Once again he was a select committee's most important witness and adviser, and it was especially owing to his letters to the government, his bill and his expert advice that the higher education bill was accepted on 31.7.1874, placing the financial support of the state for higher educational institutions on a firm basis. To Dale the founding of the University of the Cape of Good Hope (predecessor of the University of South Africa) was the keystone of all education. Meanwhile his routine work as superintendent-general went on, with almost no help at his disposal.

The law of 1874 had made no provision for school inspectors, but, with characteristic diligence, Dale himself undertook the task of inspecting as many schools as possible over a vast area drawing up reports and making recommendations. Owing to a shortage of funds his repeated requests for school inspectors were not met for years, and it was only in August 1872 that two were appointed.

Only then could Dale turn his full attention to such urgent matters as the institution of school standards, a feature of British schools since 1861, and the issuing of teachers' certificates to qualified persons. In 1873, with the assistance that he was then receiving, he was able to give the Cape its first school standards (I-IV), modelled on the British system; in January 1884 a fifth was added and in 1887 standard VI was instituted as the highest primary class.

By grading pupils in different standards Dale produced order where there had formerly been only a vague semblance of a system, and gradually the daily work of the schools acquired a fixed foundation.
From the opening of his term of office Dale, though relying largely on imported teachers, endeavoured to further the existing pupil-teacher system, only to have lack of funds bring about its suspension in June 1860. He then took the matter in hand so that the system became an important source for the provision of primary teachers.

He also laid the foundations of a modern system of examinations for teachers; the question of their certification and registration had been broached in his report of 1862, but without the aid of inspectors he was unable to do more during his first twelve years in office. In 1872 he drew up the regulations for the acquisition of the elementary teachers' certificate (commonly known as the T3), and the first examinations were conducted at Grahamstown and Cape Town in April and September 1873. Knowledge of English was heavily emphasized in these: Dutch received hardly any attention.
After the founding of the normal college in Cape Town by the N.G. Kerk (1878) D. was able to proceed to the introduction of the middle-class certificate (T2), awarded to students at the college.

The inactivity of the N.G. Kerk as regards education was one of the greatest difficulties with which he had to contend in his years of struggling to bring the state-aided schools to complete fulfilment. The drawback of the state-supported system was its passivity, its exclusive reliance on local initiative and its want of what Dale called an 'aggressive element'. With the exception of three or four ministers the Cape N.G. Kerk as a whole did very little for education during the years up to 1872, mainly because of its pre-occupation with the prevailing religious struggle against the liberal theologians, which only abated in that year.

Meanwhile Dale waited patiently, repeatedly asserting that the N.G. Kerk, with its extensive membership, could be the greatest single factor making for the success of the system of state support. It was only about 1873-74 that he began to enjoy the full support of the Church, with whose help even the most remote country farmer could be reached and gradually brought to realize that his children needed a more advanced education than that required for acceptance as a member of the Church.

In terms of the Cape constitution of 1853 the imperial treasury made £6,000 available for education in Bantu schools and industrial institutions situated on the eastern Cape frontier and administered by the high commissioner, while the schools were under the direct supervision of the Cape colonial secretary.

Dale could not bear having no control over Bantu education, but a letter to the colonial secretary was passed over and it was only in 1862 that the Watermeyer commission took up the matter again. Dale, having been instructed to report on the institutions for Bantu education, undertook the task with his well-known thoroughness and visited the institutions at Salem, Grahamstown, Healdtown, Fort Peddie, Alice, Lesseyton and Shiloh; his report, which appeared on 17.6.1863, is probably the first complete and orderly review of Bantu education in the Cape Colony. As a result, in September 1863 the authorities placed Bantu education under the direct control and inspection of the department of education, from which time Dale was in a position both to determine what took place in its institutions and to draw up annual reports thereon.

As regards the medium of instruction his attitude towards Dutch was negative to the end; at a time when the Cape was passing through the most extreme phase of anglicization he regarded English as the only educational medium. He encouraged Dutch merely as a means to an end, hoping that the school-child's general development would eventually bring him to a better comprehension and acceptance of English.

Whenever his official duties allowed it, he pursued his hobby of collecting Bushman tools, and his articles on the subject in the Annals of the South African Museum, together with his discoveries of previously unknown implements, have made him one of the pioneers of South African archaeology.

The University of Glasgow recognized his services in furthering higher education with an honorary LL.D. as early as 1859, and he was knighted in 1889.

The composition of detailed reports, memoranda, drafts for educational legislation, and his inspectoral tours, which kept him from home for months, deprived him of time in which to write an entire book on education, but he was the author of numerous scattered writings, the most important being: his prize essay, Tubus astronomicus (Oxford, 1848); Suggestions and topics for mutual improvement: a lecture delivered at the Young Men's institute (Cape Town, 1866); Education in colleges and high schools (Cape Town, 1868); Writings of the day (Cape Town, 1868); Imagination: an essay (Cape Town, 1869); Ecclesiastical topics for the consideration of churchmen in this diocese (Cape Town, 1869); Colonial examinations in literature and science (Cape Town, 1873); Technical instruction and industrial training: a necessary supplement to the colonial system of public education (Cape Town, 1875, 1884, and Lovedale, 1892); The philosophy of method (Cape Town, 1877); The vice-chancellor's address, the University of the Cape of Good Hope degree day (Cape Town, 1879 and 1881).

Dale married Emma Ross (†31.10.1876), a daughter of Thomas Ross, M.D., of the 60th American regiment, on 3.1.1849. Four sons and a daughter were born of the marriage. After retiring as superintendent-general in May 1892 he spent his last years at Montagu cottage, his home in Koeberg road, Mowbray, where he had lived since 1853.

There is a portrait in Ritchie (infra), and a bust in white marble (by F. J. Williamson, 1893), in the foyer of the Jagger Library at the University of Cape Town.
J. I. J. v. R.

Acknowledgements

Dictionary of South African Biography - W. RITCHIE,
The history of the South African college, 1829-1918. 2 v. C.T., 1918; - A. J. H. GOODWIN and C. VAN RIET LOWE,
'The stone-age culture of South Africa,' Ann., S. Afr. Mus., v. 27, 1929; - F. C. METROWICH,
The development of higher education in South Africa, 1873-1927. C.T., 1929; - P. A. MILLARD,
St. Paul's, Rondebosch, centenary 1834-1934. C.T., 1934; - M. J. STUCKI,
Die skool op Blauwvallei en my werk aldaar. Stell., 1935; - W . J. DE KOCK,
'Die Kaaplandse onderwysberoep onder sir Langham Dale (1859-1892)' (Unp. B.Ed. th., U.C.T., 1939); - J. I. JANSE VAN RENSBURG,
'Die lewe en werk van sir Langham Dale, 1859-1892' (Unp. D.Ed. th., U.S., 1943), with complete list of sources; - F. SMUTS, 'Classical scholarship and the teaching of classics at Cape Town and Stellenbosch', Acta Classica, C.T., 1960; JOYCE MURRAY (ed.),
Mrs Dale's diary 1857-1872, C.T. 1966; - Private diaries (1858-1872) and private corresp. in the possession of the family