Charles Tate Regan, formerly Director of the British Museum (Natural History), who died on 12 January 1943, was born of Irish descent at Sherborne in Dorset on 1 February 1878. Both his father, C. J. Regan, who was at one time music master at Sherborne School, and his mother were musicians and had been fellow pupils under Sterndale Bennett at the Royal Academy of Music of which they both became Associates. There is no record of any scientific leanings in his family, although his maternal grandfather (William Tate) had considerable repute as an expert in the principles and theory of finance, being the author in 1829 of The Modern Cambist, a well-known book on banking and exchange. Regan was sent to Derby School, and it seems likely that this choice of school was suggested to his parents by the fact that the headmaster, J. R. Sterndale Bennett, was the son of the musician under whom they had both been trained at the R.A.M., and that music formed an important item in the school discipline. While at school he showed musical and athletic ability, and took a keen interest in natural history, particularly it seems in the local flora. His forceful personality combined with a natural gift for games and sports won for him a prominent position in the social life of the school—he was captain of the cricket XI, an outstanding football player and athlete, and eventually the captain of the school. On the scholastic side, too, he made his mark and the science master (L. J. Fuller) was so much impressed by his scientific interest in natural history that he suggested his taking a biological training after leaving school with the object of obtaining a post in the Natural History Museum.
Urban Secondary Teachers’ Value Orientations: Delineating Curricular Goals for Social Responsibility
