That's generally accurate. The heavy hitters, with a few exceptions
like Faraday, were of noble ancestry or otherwise privileged. We
really need to look to the Americans, to Horace Mann and John Dewey
who understood the wider non-functional ends of education; nation
building, supporting democracy, living a happy life etc. That fed back
into British society mainly post-war, driven by the need to rebuild a
devastated society. Today, in our coddled complacency, that seems far
away and 'optional'.