Musicalkd at 02:22, 30 April 2026

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{{Short description|British colonial administrator (1828–1859)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2020}}
{{infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = {{nowrap|William Delafield Arnold}}
| honorific_suffix =
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1828|4|7}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1859|4|9|1828|4|7}}
| death_place =
| resting_place =
| education = [[Rugby School]]
| alma_mater = [[Christ Church, Oxford]]
| father = {{nowrap|[[Thomas Arnold]]}}
| mother = Mary Penrose
| spouse = {{marriage|Frances Anne Hodgson|3 Apr 1850|1858|end=died}}
| children = 4
| occupation =
| known_for =
| relatives = [[Matthew Arnold]] (brother)<br>[[Tom Arnold (literary scholar)|Thomas Arnold]] (brother)<br>[[Florence Vere O'Brien|Florence Arnold]] (daughter)<br>[[H. O. Arnold-Forster|Hugh Arnold]] (son)<br>[[Frances Egerton Arnold-Forster|Frances Arnold]] (daughter)
}}

'''William Delafield Arnold''' (7 April 1828 – 9 April 1859) was a British writer and colonial administrator.

==Early life==
{{wikisource |Laws of Football as played at Rugby School (1845)}}
He was the fourth son of [[Thomas Arnold]], the headmaster of [[Rugby School]]. His older brothers included the poet and critic [[Matthew Arnold]] and the literary scholar [[Tom Arnold (academic)|Tom Arnold]]. He was educated at Rugby School and [[Christ Church, Oxford]], matriculating in 1846.<ref>{{alox2|title=Arnold, William Delafield}}</ref> Not long after his father's death in 1842, William, a pupil at Rugby, was part of a committee of three, Arnold, W. W. Shirley and Frederick Hutchins,<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Laws of Football as played at Rugby School (1845)}}</ref><ref name=Curry2001>{{cite book |first=Graham |last=Curry |year=2001 | title=Football: A Study in Diffusion |location=Leicester |publisher=University of Leicester |page=28 |url=https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/7821/1/391137.pdf }}</ref> that drew up the first written rules for football at Rugby School.<ref>{{cite book |last=Macrory |first=Jenny |year=1991 |title=Running with the Ball: The Birth of Rugby Football |location=London |publisher=HarperCollins |page=93 |isbn=0002184028}}</ref> These rules were approved in August 1845 and published that same year, becoming the first known published set of rules for any code of football.<ref name=Curry2001/>

Later, William served as an educational administrator (during 1855) in [[Punjab, India|Punjab]], in [[British India]]; as the first director of public instruction in the Punjab, he was responsible for implementing "Halkabandi" in that province.<ref>Allender, Tim. "William Arnold and Experimental Education in North India, 1855–1859: An Innovative Model of State Schooling." Historical Studies in Education 16, no. 1 (2004): 63–83.</ref> One of his most significant achievements was to enact a law separating church and state in public schools. As a result, Hindu pupils who attended these schools were no longer required to study the Bible or the Koran in public schools. This policy would later influence public schools in England as well. While working in India, William wrote several articles for ''[[Fraser's Magazine]]'', mainly concerning "the India question" (see bibliography). In 1853, William published a novel of [[Anglo-Indian]] life, ''[[Oakfield; or, Fellowship in the East]]'', which explores commonalities between spiritual traditions of the East and the West, while also predicting the "mutiny" that would occur soon afterward. The main character of ''Oakfield'' is dying of disease contracted in India; its author was afflicted with the same disease. William died aged 31, at [[Gibraltar]], on his way home from India. Matthew Arnold's poem "A Southern Night" mourns his early death.<ref name=daughters/>

==Family==
On 3 April 1850, Arnold married Frances Anne Hodgson, known as Fanny, the daughter of Major-General John Anthony Hodgson of the Bengal army.<ref name = "WDAODNB>{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/690|title=Arnold, William Delafield|last=Prior|first=Katherine}}</ref>

Their children were:
* Edward Penrose Arnold-Forster {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DL}} (1851–1927), military officer and worsted wool manufacturer in Yorkshire
* [[Florence Vere O'Brien|Florence Mary Arnold-Forster]] (1854–1936), craftswoman and author, founder of the Limerick Lace School, married Robert Vere O'Brien
* [[H. O. Arnold-Forster|Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster]] {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MP}} (1855–1909), Cabinet minister and political author
* [[Frances Egerton Arnold-Forster]] (1857–1921), ecclesiastical historian<ref name=daughters>{{Cite ODNB |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49722 |pages=ref:odnb/49722 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=2023-04-27 |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/49722 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref>

After the deaths of Frances in March 1858 and William in April 1859, the children were adopted by William's sister Jane Martha and her husband [[William Edward Forster]], later adopting the surname Arnold-Forster.<ref name=daughters/>

==References==

{{reflist}}
*[http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/cgi-bin/auth.pl?A005676 Author and Bookinfo.com]
* [[Lionel Trilling|Trilling, Lionel]] (1939) ''Matthew Arnold''. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
* Gander Ostrander, Diana L., Ph.D. ''An Anglo-Indian in Search of Wisdom: W. D. Arnold's India Pilgrimage''. University of Minnesota, 2007, 237 pages; AAT 3252500.
* Gander Ostrander, Diana L., Ph.D. "Wordsworth in the Himalayas: Indian Narratology and Sacred Space in William Delafield Arnold's Oakfield: Fellowship in the East." ''Religion and the Arts'' 14.1–2 (2010): 34–58. Print.
* Arnold, William Delafield. “An Anglo-Indian Lament for John Company.” ''Fraser’s Magazine'', Vol. 57, No. 342. May 1858, 635–642.
* "An Anglo-Indian View of the Indian Crisis.” ''Fraser’s Magazine'' Vol. 57, No. 339, March 1858, 269–282.
* “An Anglo-Indian View of the Indian Crisis: The Second Part.” ''Fraser’s Magazine'' Vol. 57, No. 340, April 1858, 473–487.
* “The Curate of Edenholm.” ''Fraser’s Magazine''. Volume 57, 473–480.
* ''German Letter on English Education'', by Dr. L. Wiese. Translated by W.D. Arnold. Longmans, 1854.
* Essay. ''Short Essays on Social and Indian Subjects'' Calcutta, 1869, 156–73.
* “How Queen Victoria Was Proclaimed at Peshawar.” ''Fraser’s Magazine'', Vol. 59, January 1859, 120–126.
* “India in a Mess.” ''Fraser’s Magazine'', Vol. 58, No. 348. December 1858, 730–741.
* “India in Mourning: From the Punjab, September 29, 1857.” ''Fraser’s Magazine''. Vol. 56. December 1857, 737–750.
* “Jack Sepoy.” Fraser’s Magazine, Vol. 54, No. 321. September 1856, 359–362.
* “Lord Dalhousie.” Fraser’s Magazine, Vol. 52, No. 308. July 1855, 123–135.
* “Memorandum as to a Central College at Lahore.” 21 January 1856, No. 236 OIOC [Oriental and India Office Collection] P/201/53.
* "The Night Mail Train in India." ''Fraser's Magazine'', Vol. 54, December 1856, 680–684.
* ''Oakfield: Fellowship in the East''. Edited by Kenneth Allott. Leicester: Leicester UP, 1973.
* “An Overland Mail Adventure.” ''Fraser’s Magazine''. Vol. 54, No. 319. July 1856, 111–121.
* “Progress of the India Question.” ''Fraser’s Magazine''. Vol. 47, Number 3089. March 1853, 473–484.
* “Protestantism: Zwingle and His Times.” ''Fraser’s Magazine'' Vol. 53, March 1856, 326–341.
* The Palace of Westminster, and Other Historical Sketches. London, 1855.
* “What is the Indian Question?” ''Fraser’s Magazine''. Vol. 47, No. 3089. March 1853, 473–484.

==External links==
* "Oakfield: Fellowship in the East", novel by William Delafield Arnold:
** [https://archive.org/details/oakfieldorfello03arnogoog/page/n104  Vol. 1]
** [https://archive.org/details/oakfieldorfello02arnogoog/page/n11  Vol. 2]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, William Delafield}}
[[Category:1828 births]]
[[Category:1859 deaths]]
[[Category:British people of Cornish descent]]
[[Category:People from Rugby, Warwickshire]]
[[Category:People educated at Rugby School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century English male writers]]

William Delafield Arnold - Revision history

Musicalkd at 02:22, 30 April 2026