Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Carver, Alfred James
CARVER, ALFRED JAMES (1826–1909), master of Dulwich College, born at King's Lynn on 22 March 1826, was only son of James Carver, an evangelical clergyman of an old Norfolk family, by his wife Anne Spurling. The father, after graduating at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (B.A. 1812, M.A.1815), devoted himself in London to the spiritual welfare of prisoners for crime or debt in Newgate and other prisons. On 20 Feb. 1836 the son was admitted to St. Paul's School, London, whence he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a scholar in 1845. At Cambridge he was elected Bell University scholar in 1846, and he won the Burney University prize essay in 1849. He graduated B.A. with a first class in classics and as a senior optime in 1849. Next year he became classical lecturer and fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, and was ordained. On his marriage in 1853 his fellowship lapsed, and his active connection with his university ceased after he served as examiner in the classical tripos in 1857-8. Meanwhile, in 1852, Carver became surmaster of St. Paul's, his old school. In 1858 he was appointed master of Alleyn's College of God's Gift at Dulwich. A new scheme for the development of Alleyn's educational foundation had just been sanctioned by a private act of parliament. Although Alleyn by statutes drawn up in 1626 had intended to found a public school of the high grade, his educational endowment was until 1858 applied solely to the instruction of 'twelve poor scholars.' The new act, which Carver was first to administer, created two schools of different types. The upper school, for public-school education of the highest kind, was soon known as Dulwich College, and the lower school, for middle-class secondary education, was named Alleyn's School. Both schools were under Carver's control and prospered greatly. The houses which were first employed soon proved inadequate, and were replaced by new buildings. The upper school or Dulwich College moved to a building designed by Sir Charles Barry, which was formally opened by King Edward VII when Prince of Wales on 21 June 1870. Carver's energy created Dulwich College, and made it one of the great public schools of England; its pupils numbered when he left in 1883 some 600 boys. The lower-grade school, Alleyn's School, also moved into new buildings under his guidance, and its numbers soon after rise from 250 to 650. Carver gave effect to broad-minded and sagacious views on education. He saw that every subject can offer educational facilities, and that education based on one rigid formula was bad. His object was to develop a boy's faculties on lines most congenial to his natural aptitude. He encouraged the study of modern languages and paid much attention to the drawing classes, and he was the first headmaster to pass boys direct from school into the India civil service. His ideal of education was high, and his energy and perseverance indomitable.
On the passing of the act of 1882 Dulwich College and Alleyn's School became two distinct schools under separate masters. Carver retired next year with a pension after twenty-five years' service. His interest in his school and in education was maintained until his death. He never missed the annual dinner of the Alleyn Club, the old boys' club, which was founded at his instigation in 1873. The archbishop of Canterbury had made him D.D. of Lambeth in 1861, and in 1882 he was appointed an honorary canon of Rochester. In later life he was chairman of the governors of James Allen's Girls' Schools at Dulwich, and vice-president and member of the council of the Royal Naval School, Elthaca (closed in 1 909). Carver died at Tynnhurst, Streatham, on 25 July 1909, and was buried in West Norwood cemetery, the first part of the funeral service being held in the college chapel. In 1 853 he married Eliza (d. 1907 ), youngest daughter of William Peek, of Peek, Winch & Co., tea merchants. By her he had issue three sons and five daughters. Carver himself founded at Dulwich College the Carver memorial prize for efficiency in modern languages. A fine organ in the college hall also commemorates his mastership. Posthumous memorials are a wing to the school library and a reredos in the college chapel. A portrait by Eden Upton Eddis, presented to Carver [in 1867, is now in the possession of his son Arthur Wellington Carter, vicar of Langton, Wragby. Another portrait, painted by S. Melton Fisher, a pupil of the school, hangs in the masters' common room.
[The Times, 26 July 1909; R. B. Gardiner's Reg. St.Paul's School, 1884; R. Hovenden's History of Dulwich College, 1873; W. H. Blanch's Dulwich College, 1877; A. M. Gater's Norwood and Dulwich, 1890; personal knowledge.]