{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} '''William Henry Charsley''' (1820 – 2 November 1900) was an English academic, Master of Charsley's Hall, Oxford from 1862 to 1891.
Born at Beaconsfield in 1820, Charsley matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, but left after being blinded in an accident. He returned to St Mary Hall, with assistance from his brother Robert Harvey Charsley, and graduated from there to become a well-regarded tutor.<ref name=Hiley>Richard William Hiley, ''Memories of Half a Century'' (1899), p. 55: "The above description of some of the members that composed our body shall be closed with a slight biography of two men, honoured, respected and beloved by all who knew them..."</ref> He founded Charsley's Hall, a private hall at Oxford, in 1862, continuing as its licensed Master until 1891, when he was succeeded by Charles Abdy Marcon.<ref>Christopher Hibbert (ed.), "Private halls" in ''The Encyclopaedia of Oxford'' (London: Macmillan, 1988), p. 337</ref><ref>''Oxford University Calendar 1866'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=BLwUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA346 p. 346]</ref><ref name=annual>''The Annual Register of World Events'' (Longmans, Green, 1901) p. 145</ref>
''The History of the University of Oxford'' states that {{blockquote|One small establishment, however, filled a niche in the market by receiving idle or incapable students removed from the colleges. For nearly thirty years W. H. Charsley presided over a hall in Parks Road whose members, though few in number, were distinguished for their athletic prowess.<ref>T. H. Aston, Brian Harrison, ''The History of the University of Oxford'', vol. 7, Nineteenth-Century Oxford, Part 2 (1994), p. 120</ref>}} Charsley died at Great Malvern on 2 November 1900.<ref name=annual/> The ''Oxford Magazine'' noted that he had "succeeded in founding a Hall and filling it most successfully, and it still flourishes under his successor".<ref>The Oxford magazine, Volume 19, p. 76</ref> In R. W. Hiley's ''Memories of Half a Century'' (1899), Charsley is described as "honoured, respected and beloved by all... a fine man in person, of superior mind, a good scholar".<ref name=Hiley/> ==Notes== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charsley, William Henry}} Category:1820 births Category:1900 deaths Category:People from Beaconsfield Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Category:Alumni of St Mary Hall, Oxford Category:Masters of private halls of the University of Oxford Category:Blind scholars and academics