{{Short description|British writer, teacher, educational reformer and painter}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[file:Matilda Sharpe.png|thumb|Matilda Sharpe - founder of Channing School]] '''Matilda Sharpe''' (4 April 1830 – 30 April 1916)<ref name=Oxf>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51750 "Sharpe, Matilda (1830–1916)"] by Ruth Watts in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', online edition, Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 31 May 2014.</ref> was a British writer, teacher, educational reformer and painter. She founded what is now Channing School.
==Life== thumbnail|left|Matilda's portrait of her father, Samuel. She was the daughter of Sarah Sharpe, an artist, and Samuel Sharpe who was a banker and an Egyptologist. Her parents were Unitarian, rich and cousins.<ref name=ox/>
She was a talented artist, exhibiting at the Royal Academy, but her vocation was teaching. During the 1870s she volunteered her time and money to several schools. She was an inspiring teacher and the leading New South Wales politician, William Holman, attributed his success to her teaching.<ref name=ox>{{Cite ODNB|title=Sharpe, Matilda (1830–1916), headmistress|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-51750|access-date=2020-10-01|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/51750|last1=Watts|first1=Ruth}}</ref>
In Highgate in north London, she founded Channing House School<ref>''[http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CEYQFjAE&url=http://www.unitarian.org.uk/docs/publications/1903_Robert_Spears.pdf&ei=HzCKU_2NO4mYPZLdgPAL&usg=AFQjCNGUNy1XAZnf8Y_ryrjj8H3LeCdzkQ&bvm=bv.67720277,d.ZWU&cad=rj Memorials of Robert Spears 1825-99]{{dead link|date=May 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}''. Belfast: Ulster Unitarian Christian Association, p. 35.</ref> (after Robert Spears' idea) and a Unitarian Chapel in Despard Road. She devoted most of her energy and her money to the school. She believed in education for all and taxing the rich to pay for it. She was keen on homilies and published books of these and a book of poetry.<ref name=ox/>
She died at her home in Highgate in 1915. Several of her portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery, London.<ref>[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp07545/matilda-sharpe Matilda Sharpe (1830-1915)] National Portrait Gallery, 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2014.</ref>
==Selected publications== *''Old favourites from the elder poets, with a few newer friends. A selection by M. Sharpe.'' Williams and Norgate, London, 1881. Second revised edition, Methuen, 1912. An anthology of nine women poets, particularly Anna Laetitia Barbauld. *''Never forget: A collection of precepts.'' Griffith & Farran, London, 1890. *''The journey to paradise, or, flight of the soul to its maker. A heavenly day dream set down by Matilda Sharpe.'' Christian Life Office, London, 1899.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *Sharpe, L. (1916) ''Memorials of Matilda Sharpe, 1830–1916''.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharpe, Matilda}} Category:1830 births Category:1916 deaths Category:Painters from London Category:Heads of schools in London Category:19th-century English painters Category:20th-century English painters Category:20th-century British women artists Category:Founders of English schools and colleges Category:19th-century British philanthropists Category:19th-century British women painters