Telford Varley

Born in Islington on March 20, 1866, Telford Varley studied mathematics at St John's College, Cambridge, earning a BSc in 1887 and later an MA. He also won the Cambridge Seatonian Prize three times for sacred poetry, showing an interest in writing that sat alongside his academic and teaching career.

Varley taught in Mansfield and Guildford before becoming the first headmaster of Peter Symonds School in Winchester, a post he held from 1897 to 1926. During those years he was also ordained as a priest in 1908. Accounts of his time at the school suggest he was a memorable and sometimes formidable figure, but his name endured in Winchester not only through education but through the books he wrote about the county.

He is best remembered as the author of popular local histories of Hampshire and Winchester, as well as a guide-style work on the Isle of Wight. These books were written for general readers rather than specialists, and their popularity was helped by illustrations from the artist Wilfred Ball. Varley died on May 7, 1938; although he spent his later years in Brighton, he was buried in Winchester.