Bell Andrew

Bell, Andrew, was born in 1753 at St. Andrews, where also he was educated. Taking orders in the Church of England, he went to India, and in 1789 became manager of the institution for the education of the orphan children of European soldiers at Madras. Here, through the lack of properly qualified assistants, he had to fall back upon the scholars themselves for aid, in which expedient originated the Madras or monitorial system of education. His health failing he was pensioned off by the East India Company in 1797, and having returned to England he in the same year published a work on his system. Through its adoption by Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker, it obtained considerable public recognition, and Lancasterian schools spread over the country. This alarmed the Church party, which in 1811 founded the National Society for the Education of the Poor, with Bell as superintendent. After a visit to the Continent in furtherance of his system he was appointed prebendary of Hereford and of Westminster. Dying in 1832, he apportioned £120,000 of his fortune for educational purposes.