Somerville College, Oxford
Encyclopedia : S : SO : SOM : Somerville College, Oxford
| Somerville College, University of Oxford | |
| |
| Full name | Somerville College |
| Motto | Donec rursus impleat orbem |
| Named after | Mary Somerville |
| Previous Names | Somerville Hall |
| Established | 1879 |
| Sister College | Girton College |
| Principal | Dame Fiona Caldicott |
| JCR President | Simon Bruegger |
| MCR President | Marta Zaoralova |
| Location | Woodstock Road, Oxford |
| Undergraduates | 396 |
| Graduates | 88 |
| [Homepage] | [Boat Club] |
Somerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there.
Contents
History
In June 1878 the Association for the Higher Education of Women was formed, aiming for the eventual creation of a college for women in Oxford. Some of the more prominent members of the association were Dr. Bradley, master of University College, T. H. Green, a prominent liberal philosopher, and Edward Talbot, Warden of Keble College. The latter insisted on a specifically Anglican institution, which was unacceptable to most of the other members. The two parties eventually split, and one went on to found Lady Margaret Hall. Thus, in 1879, a second committee was formed "in which no distinction will be made between students on the ground of their belonging to different religious denominations". The members of this second committee included Dr. John Percival, Dr. G. W. Kitchin, A. H. D. Ackland, T. H. Green, Mary Ward, William Sidgwick, Henry Nettleship and A. G. Vernon Harcourt. This new effort resulted in the founding of Somerville Hall, named for the then recently deceased Mary Somerville, one of the greatest English mathematicians of the 19th century. The hall was renamed Somerville College in 1894.Somerville remained a women's college until 1994. Today around 40-50% of students are men.
Principals of Somerville Hall and Somerville College
- Madelaine Shaw-Lefèvre (Principal of Somerville Hall 1879 - 1889)
- Agnes Catherine Maitland (Principal of Somerville Hall 1889 - 1894, Principal of Somerville College 1894 - 1906)
- Dame Emily Penrose (1906 - 1926) - classical scholar
- Margery Fry (1927 - 1930) - social reformer
- Helen Darbishire (1930 - 1945) - literary scholar
- Dame Janet Vaughan (1945 - 1967) - haematologist and radiobiologist
- Barbara Craig (1967 - 1980)
- Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth (1980 - 1989)
- Catherine Pestell (1989 - 1991, as Catherine Hughes 1991 - 1996 As the statutes of the College did not permit the Principal to marry, Miss Pestell resigned, married and was re-elected as Principal, however there was a two week period when the College had no Principal.)
- Dame Fiona Caldicott (1996 - present)
Notable alumnae
See also
- Vera Brittain, novelist
- Indira Gandhi, former prime minister of India
- Helen Goodman, politician
- Dorothy Hodgkin, Nobel Prize winner for her discovery of the structure of Vitamin B12
- Winifred Holtby, novelist
- Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, politician
- Kathleen Kenyon (1906-1978), archaeologist
- Kathleen Ollerenshaw, mathematician
- Rose Macaulay, novelist
- Iris Murdoch, author of The Good Apprentice
- Esther Rantzen, journalist and children's welfare ambassador
- Dorothy L. Sayers, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey books and translator of Dante's Inferno.
- Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1979-90
- Shirley Williams, politician
Academics/teachers
References
- Somerville for women: an Oxford college 1879 - 1993, Pauline Adams (OUP, 1996) ISBN 019920179X
Notes
| Colleges of the University of Oxford |
|
|---|---|
| All Souls | Balliol | Brasenose | Christ Church | Corpus Christi | Exeter | Green | Harris Manchester | Hertford | Jesus | Keble | Kellogg | Lady Margaret Hall | Linacre | Lincoln | Magdalen | Mansfield | Merton | New College | Nuffield | Oriel | Pembroke | Queen's | St Anne's | St Antony's | St Catherine's | St Cross | St Edmund Hall | St Hilda's | St Hugh's | St John's | St Peter's | Somerville | Templeton | Trinity | University | Wadham | Wolfson | Worcester | |
| Permanent Private Halls at the University of Oxford | |
| Blackfriars | Campion Hall | Greyfriars | Regent's Park College | St Benet's Hall | St Stephen's House | Wycliffe Hall | |
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