Editing Goodbye, Mr. Chips (section)

== Inspiration ==

The setting for ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' is probably based on [[The Leys School]], Cambridge, where James Hilton was a pupil (1915–18). Hilton is reported to have said that the inspiration for the protagonist, Mr. Chips, came from many sources, including his father, who was the headmaster of Chapel End School. Mr. Chips is also likely to have been based on [[William Henry Balgarnie|W. H. Balgarnie]], a master at The Leys (1900–30), who was in charge of the ''Leys Fortnightly'' (in which Hilton's first short stories and essays were published.) Over the years, old boys wrote to Geoffery Houghton, a master at The Leys and a historian of the school, confirming the links between Chipping and Balgarnie, who eventually died at [[Porthmadog]] at the age of 82.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,815206,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123130454/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,815206,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 November 2010|title=Milestones |date= 30 July 1951 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]| access-date=27 September 2009}}</ref> Balgarnie had been linked with the school for 51 years and spent his last years in modest lodgings nearby. Like Mr. Chips, Balgarnie was a strict disciplinarian, but would also invite boys to visit him for tea and biscuits.<ref name="tele"/>

Hilton wrote upon Balgarnie's death that "Balgarnie was, I suppose, the chief model for my story. When I read so many other stories about [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public school]] life, I am struck by the fact that I suffered no such purgatory as their authors apparently did, and much of this miracle was due to Balgarnie."<ref name="tele">{{cite news|author= Timothy Carroll |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/12/09/batc09.xml |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060624214627/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/12/09/batc09.xml |url-status= dead |archive-date= 24 June 2006 |title= Who was the real Mr Chips? |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=9 December 2002 |access-date=11 April 2011}}</ref> The [[Sideburns|mutton chop side whiskers]] of one of the masters at The Leys earned him the nickname "Chops", a likely inspiration for Mr Chips' name.<ref name="tele"/>

In Hilton’s final novel, ''Time and Time Again'' (1953), protagonist Charles Anderson bears clear biographical similarities to Hilton himself.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} Early in the novel, Anderson briefly reminisces about attending Brookfield and knowing "Chips".