ST HUGH'S: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF WOMEN'S EDUCATION IN OXFORD St Hugh's: One Hundred Years of Worrrerr's Education in Oxford Edited by Penny Griffin iillliEL1TJt' M MACMILLAN ©The Association of Senior Members, St Hugh's College, Oxford 1986 Softcoverreprintofthehardcover1stedition1986 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy ortransmission ofthis publicationmaybe made without written permission. No paragraph ofthis publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with the written permission orin accordance with the provision ofthe CopyrightAct 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to thispublication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civilclaims for damages. First published 1986 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by LatimerTrend & Company Ltd, Plymouth Printed in Great Britain by Anchor Brendon Ltd, Tiptree, Essex British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data StHugh's: one hundred years ofwomen's education in Oxford. 1. St Hugh's College-History I. Griffin, Penny 328.325'74 LF797.0853 ISBN 978-1-349-07727-4 ISBN 978-1-349-07725-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07725-0 Dedicated to the memory of Miss Wordsworth who founded St Hugh's and Miss Moberly, and Miss Jourdain, who created it Ye Somervillian students, Ye ladies of St Hugh's Whose rashness and imprudence Provokesmy warning Muse, Receive not with Impatience, Butcalmly, as you should, These simple observations- I make them for yourgood. Why seekfor mere diplomas, Andcommonplace degrees, When now- unfettered roamers- Youstudywhat you please, While man in like conditions Is forced to stick like gum Unto the requisitions of acurriculum. (A. D. Godley, OxfordMagazine, 19 February 1896) Writtenjustbeforetherejectionin Marchofaproposedresolutiontoadmit'qualified women' to thedegreeofBA. Contents List ofIllustrations IX Preface Xl Acknowledgements X111 Notes on the Contributors XV Introduction Phyllis Hartnoll 1 1 Women's Education Rachel Trickett 5 2 The Early History of St Hugh's College Betty Kemp 15 3 The Row Rachel Trickett 48 4 Reminiscences of Seven Decades Priscilla West 62 5 Origins and Outcomes Sarah Curtis 244 6 Women's Education and its Future Baroness Warnock 284 Select Bibliography 299 Appendices I Women and Science in St Hugh's and the University 300 Dr Mary Lunn II St Hugh's College: the Acquisition ofProperty and Progress ofBuildingfrom 1886 to 1981 302 Susan Clear III St Hugh's College Garden 305 E. E. S. Procter (reprinted from the St Hugh's Chronicle, 1952) Vll Contents Vlll An Interview with George Harris, Gardener at St Hugh's, 1927-72 313 PriscillaWest IV Extractsfrom the Letters ofMolly McNeill (1916-17) 317 Index 327 List of Illustrations PLATES 1 Dame Elizabeth Wordsworth; Miss C. A. Moberly; Miss B. E. Gwyer; Miss E. E. S. Procter; Miss K. M. Kenyon;Miss M. R. Trickett; Miss E. F. Jourdain L Clara Mordan; Dame Joan Evans; Mary Gray Allen 3 Miss Gertrude Thorneycroft; Miss Busbridge and Miss Adam; Principal and four Fellows of St Hugh's College 4 First students at St Hugh's, 1887; St Hugh's, 1890 5 Miss Jourdain, 1915; Miss Ady, with Margery Lewis, Eleanor Nicholas, Mary Richards and Muriel Holland, 1916; Miss Ady in 1916; Gwen Vaughan, Norah Carter and Joan Evans, 1916; Molly McNeill, 1916 6 The Staffof St Hugh's, 1919; Girl in a canoe, 1915 7 St Hugh's College, 1916; The first College photograph taken after the war, 1946 8 The Ugly Duckling takes to the water, c. 1891; St John's Madrigal Society afloat, 1947;Studyingon the riverbank, 1956; Nothing like hard work, 1980s! 9 St Hugh's hockey team, 1915-16;Tennis at St Hugh's, c. 1916; Skating on Port Meadow, 1958 10 Matriculation, 1920s; Degree taking, 1950s;The successful BA, 1940s; After Finals, 1950s; Taking their MAs, 1950s 11 Dorothy Rippon's car, 1925; The Proctor and his Bulldogs, 1957; Margaret Carpenter, 1967; The Oxford Pastoral Mission, 1956 12 Comus, 1935; The Western Chamber, 1945; St Hugh's Players, 1980 x List ofIllustrations 13 The early St Hugh's; The island site 14 A student's room in the 'old'college; An undergraduate's room in the 1980s 15 The Proctorial Procession, 19 March 1980; 'Topping out' the New Building, July 1965 16 MissAnnie Rogers, 1930; George Harris, 1972;CollegeMemor ial to Annie Rogers; St Hugh's gardens, May 1937 Preface In preparing a book about St Hugh's, it has been a matter ofsome prideto discoverthenumberoffirst-timeachievementsfor women in Oxford which lie to the credit of 'ladies of St Hugh's': amongst others,thefirstwomanto read Botany,thefirst women toobtain First Class degrees in: English, History, Jurisprudence and Physics; the first woman professor; the first woman Senior Proctor; the first woman President ofthe Oxford Union; the first woman President of the Experimental Theatre Club; the first woman student from West Africa; and even the first twelve-year-old, female undergraduate. Startingwithfour students,who wereoffered 'a less luxuriousway of living than at Lady Margaret Hall', and who occupied a smallish rentedhouse in Norham Road, StHugh'snowhasapproximately300 undergraduates, and over60 postgraduates, and ownsan entireblock ofresidential North Oxford- the'Island Site', as it is called. The College was convulsed and nearly destroyed by a vicious internal row in 1924, dramatically terminated by the death of the Principal, MissJourdain. Itwas moved from its buildings during the Second World War, and scattered in houses and hostels all over Oxford. Itsurvivedthesemajorupheavals. At thetimeofwriting, itis still fighting for the ideal for which Annie Rogers, who sat on St Hugh's Council for 42 years, a redoubtable warrior in the cause of women's education, fought hard and long-to give women the same chancesin theUniversityas themen.StHugh'sisstillsingle-sex,and has not gone co-residential, knowing that to do so would be im mediately to depress, not only the overall number ofwomen under graduates, but also the already diminishing career structure for women dons in Oxford.* The pages that follow trace the College's chequered history: they tell ofthe early years; of 'the Row'; ofthe building up again, in the late 1920s and 1930s, of morale and strength; of the gradual acqui sition ofproperty, and the loving nurture ofthe garden;ofthe lives, careers and hopes ofmany ofthose who were educatedat St Hugh's. In the 'Reminiscences', voicesspeak from the past, eachone describ ing different people, different pursuits- and a different Oxford. Oxford itselffigures prominently in these pages, as an integral part "Sincethe time thisbookwaswritten, StHugh's Governing Bodyhasvoted for the College to relinquish its single-sex status,and 'go mixed'. Xl