In March, 1889, the Managers of The Exeter Training College (i.e. for schoolmasters. Nobody seems to want to call it Saint Luke's yet.) met at the College for their Annual General Meeting. There were more than forty of them. Mr. Alexander Henry Abercromby Hamilton, who was only one of them, addressed the meeting. He said....
"he would not underestimate learning , but they must remember that the duty of these young men must be that of imparting elementary education to children, and it was quite possible that men might do that work better even if they had not obtained a first class in classics or mathematics. The chief object in this college was education in the principles and objects of the Church of England.
"The tendency which had arisen in the present day of separating religion from education must be guarded against in every possible way. They could not teach children morality, honesty and temperence unless they based it on Christianity. He hoped they would always remember that religion was the one thing needful, and that the idea of separating morality from religion was dangerous and mischievous. - (Applause)"
A.H.A. Hamilton I take to be the lawyer and legal historian who lived at Millbrook House, Exeter, His contention, 'no morality without Christianity!' was altogether mainstream at the time.
Source: The Western Times, 22nd March 1889.
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