Authors: Jane Robinson
13
. Quoted in Mallet,
History of the University
, vol. 3, 447.
14
. Frances Elizabeth Sheldon MSS (1880–83), Somerville College Archives.
15
. Rachel Lily Footman, ‘Memories of 1923–1926’, private collection and Somerville College Archives.
16
.
The Mermaid
, vol. 12 (1915–16), 132–3, University of Birmingham Library.
17
. Ibid., vol. 5 (new series, 1934–5), 146.
18
. Winifred Pattinson, letter dated 23 May 1897, Newnham College Archives.
19
. Kathleen Courtney MSS (1897), Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University.
20
. Eglantyne Jebb MSS (1895–8), Lady Margaret Hall Archives.
21
. Cutting, dated 5 March 1896, among a collection in the St Anne’s College Archives.
22
. Hobhouse,
Oxford
, 101–3.
23
.
Report as to the Rules and Discipline in Force for the Women Students at the University of Oxford
(BURR 031/49; 1909), St Hilda’s College Archives.
24
.
The Mermaid
, vol. 2 (new series, 1931–2), University of Birmingham Library.
25
. ‘The New Woman’,
Owen’s College Union Magazine
, February 1895, 74–5.
26
.
Girl’s Own Paper
, September 1886, 770.
27
. Maynard,
Between College Terms
, 189–90.
28
.
Girl’s Own Paper
, September 1886, 769–70.
29
. Ibid., 770.
30
. Author’s collection (Addey).
31
. Ibid. (Cohen).
32
. Kathleen Lonsdale MSS (1914–22), University College London Archives.
33
. Author’s collection (Harvey).
34
. Ibid. (Wood).
35
. Doris Maddy is a pseudonym, as is Hermione.
36
.
Daily Herald
, 21 June 1935.
5. WHAT TO DO IF YOU CATCH FIRE
1
. A family anecdote related to me by Clare Passingham of Oxford.
2
. Christina Roaf, ‘Life Before Somerville’,
Somerville College Report
, 2003–4, 88.
3
. Rathbone,
‘The Dales’
, 72.
4
. Quoted in Shafe,
University Education in Dundee
, 15–16. William Topaz McGonagall (1825–1902), whose publisher advertised him as ‘the greatest bad verse writer of his age… or of any age’, was affectionately known as the ‘Poet Laureate of the Silvery Tay’. His most famously awful poem is ‘The
Tay Bridge Disaster’, celebrating (if that’s the right word) the tragedy in 1879 when a Scottish railway bridge collapsed, hurling train passengers into the river below. Seventy-five of them perished.
5
. Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509), mother of Henry VII, is honoured as the foundress of Christ’s and St John’s colleges in Cambridge, and Devorguilla (
c.
1210–90) was the principal benefactress of her husband John de Balliol’s foundation at Oxford.
6
. Quoted by Pat Thane, ‘Girton Graduates: Earning a Living 1920s–1980s’, 350.
7
. Conversations with the Macdonald family.
8
. Bird (ed.),
Doves and Dons
(unpaginated), and St Mary’s College Archives, Durham.
9
.
Girl’s Own Paper
, March 1886, 407.
10
. A comment in
Yggdrasil
, Lent 1902.
11
. Woolf,
A Room of One’s Own
, 110–11. Woolf expanded her theme in
Three Guineas
(1938), an essay arguing for greater investment in women’s education and employment in Britain.
12
. Florence Rich, Reminiscences (1884), Somerville College Archives.
13
. Author’s collection (Edwards).
14
. Kathleen Byass MSS (1917), Somerville College Archives.
15
. Author’s collection (Beer).
16
. Ibid. (Atkinson). Margaret went to Manchester University.
17
. Quoted in a University of Liverpool thesis by Lynn Patricia Edwards,
Women Students at the University of Liverpool: Their Academic Careers and Postgraduate Lives 1883–1937
(1999), 69.
18
. F. M. Swann, ‘Four-Score Years and More’ (reminiscences), Lady Margaret Hall Archives.
19
. Author’s collection (Pigrome).
20
. Ibid. (Fredericks). All three sisters (at the time of writing) are still alive, aged a hundred, ninety-eight, and ‘the baby’, ninety-six. My interviews with Grace and Julie were high points in the research for this book: it was a privilege to hear their history.
21
. Author’s collection (Fletcher).
22
. Vice-Chancellor’s Letter Book (S.2344, pp. 819–20, 29 April 1918), University of Liverpool Archives.
23
.
Girl’s Own Paper
, May 1893, 514.
24
. Author’s collection (Hanschell); see also Daphne Levens, ‘Life Before Somerville’,
Somerville College Report
, 2003–4, 75.
25
. Epigram quoted in Rothblatt,
Tradition and Change
, 186.
26
. Author’s collection (Murray).
27
. Ibid. (Kempner).
28
. Marshall,
What I Remember
, 10.
29
. Callender,
Education in the Melting Pot
, 12.
30
. Ibid.
31
. Author’s collection (Dainton). Barbara Wright’s mother, trained at the Royal College of Science in Dublin, was appointed the first married woman lecturer at the University of Liverpool. She was a physical geographer.
32
. Ibid. (Morgan). Transcript of her mother’s diaries generously supplied by Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan.
33
. Ibid.
34
. See note 24.
35
.
Yorkshire Ladies’ Council on Education Reports, 1873–1920
(1874), University of Leeds Archives.
36
. Author’s collection (Emma Mason).
37
. Elizabeth Gordon MSS (G 2; 1928–32), St Hilda’s College Archives.
6. FRESHERS
1
. Frances Sheldon MSS (29 January 1882), Somerville College Archives.
2
. Freeman,
Alma Mater
, 2.
3
. Eleanor Rideout, Reminiscences (1913–16) in
Sphinx
, vol. XLVI (June 1945), 12 (SPEC S/LF 372.5.S75), University of Liverpool Archives.
4
. Elizabeth Gordon MSS (G 2; 1928–32), St Hilda’s College Archives.
5
. Hostel Expense Ledgers (1921), King’s College London Archives.
6
. St Mary’s College Archives (Student Finance file, 1934), Durham.
7
. Bird,
Doves and Dons
(unpaginated).
8
. Freeman, op. cit., 8.
9
. Ibid.
10
. Author’s collection (Stenhouse).
11
. Reports of University Hall (1908–9) (SPRC LUP.903. UNI(PC)), University of Liverpool Archives.
12
. Author’s collection (Orr).
13
. Lady Rolls MSS (1928–34), University of Hull Archives.
14
. Author’s collection (Harding).
15
. Ibid.
16
. Alison Graham-Campbell MSS (1929–32), Newnham College Archives.
17
. Susan Hicklin MSS (1930s), Somerville College Archives.
18
.
Durham University Journal
, vol. XI (18 May 1895), University of Durham Library.
19
. Brittain,
Testament of Youth
, 76.
20
. May Wallas MSS (27 October 1917), Newnham College Archives.
21
. Brittain,
Chronicle of Youth
, 118.
22
. Author’s collection (Applebey).
23
.
University College London Magazine
, vol. XVI (1938), 28–9, University College Library.
24
. Author’s collection (Levens).
25
. St Hilda’s College Archives; Margery Morton is a pseudonym.
26
. Kathleen Courtney MSS (1897), Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University.
27
. Author’s collection (Morgan).
28
. Based on a diary in St Hilda’s College Archives (PP3); Rosemary Vickers is a pseudonym.
7. WOMEN’S SPHERE
1
. Eileen Hare, Reminiscences (1932–5), Ashburne Hall Archives, Manchester.
2
. From the University of Nottingham
Annual Handbook
(1915), quoted in Wood,
A History of the University College Nottingham
, 163.
3
. Rathbone,
‘The Dales’
, 74–5.
4
. Quoted in
The Girton Review
, May 1929 (GCCP 2/1), Girton College Archives.
5
.
University Hall Fiftieth Anniversary
(1952), 47 (SPEC R/ LF379.5.U.T94), University of Liverpool Archives.
6
. Ibid.
7
. Anonymous, ‘Memories’ (1899), courtesy of Queen Mary, University of London Archives.
8
. Author’s collection (Stenhouse).
9
. Ibid. (Beswick).
10
. Kathleen Courtney MSS (1897), Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University.
11
. Sarah Mason, Diaries (1878–82), private collection; extracts in Girton College Archives.
12
. Women’s Debating Society Minutes (1879), University College London Archives.
13
. Frances Elizabeth Sheldon MSS (1880–83), Somerville College Archives.
14
. Author’s collection (Worthing).
15
. Goode MSS (1911–14), University of Leeds Archives.
16
. One can probably guess that ‘lekkers’ are lectures and ‘brekkers’ is breakfast, but a ‘wagger-pagger bagger’? A waste paper basket.
17
. Petronella Snowball MSS (2002.0017; 1921–4), St Hilda’s College Archives.
18
. Rathbone, op. cit., 79.
19
. Freeman,
Alma Mater
, 19.
20
.
The Gryphon
, 1902–3, 53, University of Leeds Library.
21
. Kathleen Hobbs, quoted in Griffin (ed.),
St Hugh’s
, 107.
22
. Article in
The Star
; undated cutting in a scrapbook, St Hilda’s College Archives.
23
. Quoted in Bird,
Doves and Dons
(unpaginated).
24
.
Girl’s Own Paper
, July 1882, 37.
25
.
Iris
(university magazine), December 1887, University of Manchester Archives.
26
. Author’s collection (Wilson).
27
.
The Times
, 7 December 1920.
28
. For a revealing treatment of the subject of women academics in British universities, see Dyhouse,
No Distinction of Sex?
29
. From a speech by Miss Arnold, the Headmistress of Truro High School in the 1890s, quoted in Deneke,
Grace Hadow
, 17.
30
. Gemma Creighton MSS (1910), Lady Margaret Hall Archives.
31
. Frances Sheldon MSS (1880–83), Somerville College Archives.
32
. Anonymous reminiscence (early 1920s), St Hugh’s College Archives.
33
. Elisabeth R. Bishop, Diaries (PP3; 1935–9), St Hilda’s College Archives.
34
. Mary Fisher MSS (1931–5), Somerville College Archives.
35
. Jane Worthington MSS (1893), Somerville College Archives.
36
. Author’s collection (Beswick).
37
. From a copy of the programme in the University of Birmingham Archives.
38
. Author’s collection (Britton).
8. BLESSED WORK
1
. A tutor’s advice on essay writing, from Sibyl Ruegg, ‘Extracts from a Diary’ (1911–12), Somerville College Archives.
2
. Dorothy L. Sayers in an article, ‘Women at Oxford’,
Daily News
, 9 February 1927, quoted in Brabazon,
Dorothy L.
Sayers
, 47.
3
. Molly McNeill MSS (1916–17), St Hugh’s College Archives.
4
. Maude Royden (1896) in Marking (ed.),
Oxford Originals
, 14.
5
. Gertrude Bell (1868–1926) went on to become a distinguished Arabist, diplomat, traveller, and writer. Agnata Ramsay (1867–1931) abandoned scholarship for marriage the year after her triumph in Classics. Philippa Fawcett (1868–1948) had an impeccable pedigree, being the daughter of the suffragette Millicent Fawcett and a Cambridge
professor, and the niece of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. She went on to lecture in maths, and was eventually appointed principal assistant to London County Council’s Director of Education. Marie Stopes (1880–1958), after her appointment as lecturer in paleobotany at Manchester, found fame – or notoriety – as the author of
Married Love
(1918).
6
. Author’s collection (Plant).
7
. Hertha Marks writing from Cambridge to her sponsor Barbara Bodichon, in Sharp,
Hertha Ayrton
, 67.
8
. Jane Worthington MSS (1893), Somerville College Archives.
9
. Lettice Ilbert MSS (1894–7), Somerville College Archives.
10
. Eglantyne Jebb MSS (1895–8), Lady Margaret Hall Archives.
11
. Winifred Peck (1901) in Marking (ed.), op. cit., 23.
12
. Author’s collection (Gaskell).
13
. Ibid. (Stenhouse).
14
. Rachel Lily Footman, ‘Memories of 1923–1926’, private collection and Somerville College Archives.
15
. Elisabeth R. Bishop, Diaries (PP3; 1935–9), St Hilda’s College Archives.