Thursday 19th July 1928
John Northidge Broughton
James Northidge Broughton was a Yorkshire man. His birth was registered in Sheffield during the quarter April, May, June 1838.
He attended London University and became an assistant maths master at Wesley College, Sheffield, for seven years, before coming to Warminster as an assistant master under Dr. Charles Alcock at Lord Weymouth’s Grammar School. He was third master from 1869 to 1872 and second master from 1873 to July 1875. He then resigned and started his own school at 1 Boreham Terrace (later renumbered 34 Boreham Road, Warminster), He called it the Warminster Collegiate School. It opened on Sunday 5th September 1875. He must have persuaded the parents of some of the Lord Weymouth School pupils that his school was better, because a few pupils relocated to the Broughton’s Warminster Collegiate School when he started on his own account.
The 1881 Census
He transferred the school to the Grange, at Grange Lane, Boreham, Warminster, in August 1881. At the Grange, the school grew in numbers and influence, occupying a prominent place in the scholastic life of the district.
In the mid-1880s Mr. Broughton closed the school and left England. He emigrated to South America, where he spent 25 years conducting a private school at Quilmes in Argentina. He later taught at St. George’s College (founded 1898), and finally at the Belgrano Day School (founded on Thursday 22th February 1912 by English teacher John Ernest Green). John Northidge Broughton died at his home in Calle Libertad 777, Quilmes, on Thursday 19th July 1928. He was 87.
Broughton’s obituary in the Buenos Aires Herald, Tuesday 24 July 1928, stated: “He was a fine example of British pluck and endurance, as he continued to exercise his profession up to 80 years of age, and even as late as last year was teaching mathematics successfully to occasional private pupils. He had, however, been failing in health for some months prior to his demise, so that his death was not altogether unexpected. Mr. Broughton, who was in his 88th year, leaves an only daughter (Miss Kate Broughton) to mourn his loss, his wife having predeceased him some ten and a half years previously. The funeral took place in the Protestant Cemetery at Quilmes – following a service at the deceased’s residence – a large number being present to pay their last tribute of respect.”