Barrister, Justice of the Peace, Farmer, Novelist and Old Ipswichian.  On the centenary year of his death we have delved into the archive to find out more about Sir Henry and his life since leaving Ipswich School.

Here's the timeline:

1870 - Joined Ipswich School
1872 - Left Ipswich School
1875 - South Africa
1884 - Barrister, Justice of the Peace
1878 - Author of 'King Solomon's Mines' and 'She'
1904-05 - President of the OI Club
1912 - Knighted
1925 - passed away age 68

In 1904 he returned to Ipswich School as the guest speaker for Speech Day, and distributed the prizes that year - you can read the full write up in the 1904 issue of the Ipswich School magazine here.

As well as a pice of graffiti - see video on our social media - we have some images of Sir Henry stored in the archive.  The first a caricature of him that appeared in Vanity fair in 1887 by 'Spy' (real name Leslie Ward):

The second is a framed bronze portrait of him made in 1919 by R. W. Brookes:

His obituary notice can be found in the 1925 issue of the Ipswich School Magazine - here's an excerpt from his time at Ipswich School:

"He was educated at the School and for some time he was regarded by the staff and others as lacking in genius; apparently for a while he was no good at Latin verses. But then “a strange thing happened.” One day Haggard sent up a set of verses that was well-nigh perfection—no “false quantities,” caesura in the right place, and altogether a revelation in the light of his previous performances. The Master at once demanded whose composition the verses were, for they could not possibly be Haggard’s. In spite of the boy’s assurance that no one had helped him, he called in the whole of the Sixth Form, one by one, to question them as to the real authorship. Finally he was satisfied that Haggard had received no assistance, and accordingly apologised to him for his doubts in the presence of the Upper School. But from that time forward Haggard had the gift of Latin verse. The trick of it all had come to him as if by inspiration and during the rest of his School days he was recognised as facile princeps in that subject. Another incident is regarded as being his first success as a descriptive writer. One of the masters offered a prize for the best-written description of any incident, real or imaginary, and young Haggard won it with an account of a surgical operation, without ever having witnessed anything of the kind or having been inside a hospital."

You can read the full obituary here.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard (OI 1870-72)