Somerville College is one of the
constituent collegesThe University of Oxford comprises 38 Colleges and 6 Permanent Private Halls of religious foundation. Colleges and PPHs are autonomous self-governing corporations within the university, and all teaching staff and students studying for a degree of the university must belong to one of the colleges...
of the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
in England, and was one of the first
women's collegeWomen's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women...
s to be founded there. As of 2006, Somerville had an estimated
financial endowmentA financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
of £44.5 million.
The college is located at the southern end of Woodstock Road, with
Little Clarendon StreetLittle Clarendon Street is a short shopping street in north-west Oxford. It runs east-west between the south end of Woodstock Road opposite St Giles' Church to the east and Walton Street to the west...
to the south and
Walton StreetWalton Street is on the eastern edge of the Jericho district of central Oxford, England.- Overview :The street runs north from the western end of Beaumont Street and northern end of Worcester Street by the main entrance of Worcester College. Somerville College, one of the former women's colleges,...
to the west.
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. G. G. BradleyGeorge Granville Bradley was an English divine, scholar, and schoolteacher.-Life:George Bradley's father, Charles Bradley, was vicar of Glasbury, Brecon....
, Master of
University College.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
, T. H. Green, a prominent liberal philosopher and Fellow of Balliol College, and
Edward Stuart TalbotEdward Stuart Talbot was an Anglican bishop in the Church of England and the first Warden of Keble College, Oxford.-Education:...
, Warden of
Keble CollegeKeble College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to the south by Museum Road, and to the west by Blackhall...
. Talbot insisted on a specifically Anglican institution, which was unacceptable to most of the other members. The two parties eventually split, and Talbot's group founded
Lady Margaret HallLady Margaret Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located at the end of Norham Gardens in north Oxford. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £34m....
.
Thus, in 1879, a second committee was formed to create a college "
in which no distinction will be made between students on the ground of their belonging to different religious denominations." This second committee included Dr.
John PercivalJohn Percival was the first Headmaster of Clifton College, where he made his reptutation as a great educator. In his 17 years at Clifton numbers rose from 62 to 680. He accepted the Presidency of Trinity College, Oxford to recover from his exhaustive years at Clifton...
,
Dr. G. W. KitchinGeorge William Kitchin was the first Chancellor of the University of Durham, from the institution of the role in 1908 till his death in 1912. He was also the last Dean of Durham Cathedral to govern the university....
, A. H. D. Ackland,
T. H. GreenThomas Hill Green was an English philosopher, political radical and temperance reformer, and a member of the British idealism movement. Like all the British idealists, Green was influenced by the metaphysical historicism of G.W.F. Hegel...
,
Mary WardMary Augusta Ward née Arnold; , was a British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward.- Early life:...
, William Sidgwick,
Henry NettleshipHenry Nettleship was an English classical scholar.Nettleship was born at Kettering, and was educated at Lancing College, Durham School and Charterhouse schools, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1861, he was elected to a fellowship at Lincoln, which he vacated on his marriage in 1870...
, and
A. G. Vernon HarcourtAugustus George Vernon Harcourt FRS was an English chemist who spent his career at Oxford University. He was one of the first scientists to do quantitative work in the field of chemical kinetics...
. This new effort resulted in the founding of
Somerville Hall, named for the then recently deceased
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
mathematicianMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
Mary SomervilleMary Fairfax Somerville was a Scottish science writer and polymath, at a time when women's participation in science was discouraged...
. The hall was renamed
Somerville College in 1894.
Somerville College was converted into a hospital during
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
—
Robert GravesRobert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
and
Siegfried SassoonSiegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...
were patients there. Sassoon opens
Siegfried's Progress with a reference to the college.
Somerville remained a women's college until 1992, when its statutes were amended to permit male students and fellows; the first male fellows were appointed in 1993, and the first male students admitted in 1994. Today around 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
Dame Emily Penrose, DBE was Principal of Somerville College, Oxford University from 1907 until 1926. She was the second of five children and eldest of the four daughters of Francis Cranmer Penrose, architect and archaeologist.-Career:Penrose, who never married, was emblematic of the history of...
(1906–1926) — classical scholar
- Margery Fry
Margery Fry was a British prison reformer as well as one of the first women to become a magistrate.Margery Fry was born in London, the eighth child of Sir Edward Fry and his wife, Mariabella Hodgkin , who were Quakers. She was educated at home until, at the age of 17, she went to Miss Lawrence's...
(1927–1930) — social reformer
- Helen Darbishire (1930–1945) — literary scholar
- Dame Janet Vaughan
Dame Janet Maria Vaughan DBE, FRS was a British physiologist.Born in Clifton, Bristol, she was the daughter of William Wyamar Vaughan, a cousin of Virginia Woolf and later headmaster of Rugby....
(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)
- Dame Fiona Caldicott
Dame Fiona Caldicott, DBE, FRCPsych, FRCP, FRCPI, FRCGP, FMedSci, is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist and, previously, Principal of Somerville College, Oxford....
(1996–2010)
- Alice Prochaska (2010–)
Notable alumni
See also Former students of Somerville College, Oxford
- Alyson Bailes
Alyson Bailes is a former English diplomat who lives in Iceland.She was born in Manchester in the United Kingdom. She graduated from Somerville College, University of Oxford in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern History and a Master of Arts in 1971.She joined the London Foreign and...
, former British ambassador and Director of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
- Carys Bannister, first British female consultant neurosurgeon
- Vera Brittain
Vera Mary Brittain was a British writer, feminist and pacifist, best remembered as the author of the best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth, recounting her experiences during World War I and the beginning of her journey towards pacifism.-Life:Born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Brittain was the...
, novelist
- Dame Averil Cameron
Dame Averil Millicent Cameron, DBE, FBA is Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History in the University of Oxford, and was formerly the Warden of Keble College, Oxford between 1994 and 2010....
, professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History and former Warden of Keble CollegeKeble College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to the south by Museum Road, and to the west by Blackhall...
- Dame Kay Davies
Dame Kay Elizabeth Davies, DBE, FRS is a British human geneticist.She is the Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at Oxford University and a fellow of Hertford College...
, human geneticist
- Susie Dent
Susie Dent is an English lexicographer, well known as the resident dictionary expert and adjudicator on Channel 4’s long-running game show Countdown. As of January 2009, she is the longest-serving member of the current on-screen team, having first appeared on the show in 1992.Dent was educated at...
, television presenter
- Dame Antonia Susan Duffy (A. S. Byatt
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...
), novelist
- Philippa Foot
Philippa Ruth Foot was a British philosopher, most notable for her works in ethics. She was one of the founders of contemporary virtue ethics...
, philosopher and ethicist
- Margaret Forster
Margaret Forster is a British author. She was born in Carlisle, England, where she attended Carlisle and County High School for Girls , and then won an Open Scholarship to read modern history at Somerville College, Oxford, from where she graduated in 1960.After a short period as a teacher at...
, author
- Indira Gandhi
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, former prime minister of India
- Helen Goodman
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, Labour politician
- Celia Green
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, philosopher and author
- Nia Griffith
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, Labour politician
- Dorothy Hodgkin, Nobel Prize
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winner for her discovery of the structure of Vitamin B12
- Fasi Zaka
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TV personality, Critic, Journalist.
- Winifred Holtby
Winifred Holtby was an English novelist and journalist, best known for her novel South Riding.-Life and writings:...
, novelist
- Sarah Ioannides
Sarah Ioannides is an Australian conductor. Her father, Ayis Ioannides, is a conductor and composer of Cypriot ancestry. Her mother is of Scottish ancestry. Ioannides grew up in England and studied piano, horn and violin...
, music director and conductor
- Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington
Margaret Ann Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, PC is a British politician for the Labour Party.-Background:Her father was former Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan, and she was educated at Blackheath High School, Blackheath and Somerville College, Oxford.Between 1965 and 1977 she held production...
, Labour Party politician and life peer
- Kathleen Kenyon
Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon , was a leading archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She is best known for her excavations in Jericho in 1952-1958.-Early life:...
(1906–1978), archaeologist
- Emma Kirkby
Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, DBE is an English soprano singer and one of the world's most renowned early music specialists. She attended Sherborne School For Girls in Dorset and was a classics student at Somerville College, Oxford, and an English teacher before developing a career as a soloist...
, classical singer
- Frances Lincoln
Frances Elisabeth Rosemary Lincoln was an English independent publisher of illustrated books. She won a Woman of the Year award in 1995.-Education:...
(1945–2001), publisher
- Genevieve Lloyd
Genevieve Lloyd is an Australian philosopher and feminist. She studied philosophy at the University of Sydney in the early 1960s and then at Somerville College, Oxford. Her D.Phil, awarded in 1973, was on 'Time and Tense'...
, philosopher and feminist
- Kathleen Ollerenshaw
Dame Kathleen Mary Ollerenshaw, née Timpson, DBE is a British mathematician and politician. Deaf since the age of eight, she loved doing arithmetic problems as a child. As a young woman, she attended St Leonards School and Sixth Form College in St Andrews, Scotland where today the house of young...
, mathematician
- Onora O'Neill, Kantian philosopher and member of the House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
- Rose Macaulay
Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, DBE was an English writer. She published thirty-five books, mostly novels but also biographies and travel writing....
, novelist
- Peter Morris (playwright)
Peter Morris is an American playwright, television writer and critic, best known for his work in British theatre.-Biography:Morris was born in Philadelphia and educated at The Haverford School and Yale University, graduating in 1997...
, (1973-)
- Iris Murdoch
Dame Iris Murdoch DBE was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about political and social questions of good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious...
, novelist
- Esther Rantzen
Esther Louise Rantzen CBE is an English journalist and television presenter who is best known for presenting the BBC television series That's Life!, and for her work in various charitable causes. She is founder of the child protection charity ChildLine, and also advocates the work of the Burma...
, journalist and children's welfare ambassador
- Michèle Roberts
Michèle Brigitte Roberts is a British writer, novelist and poet. Roberts was the daughter of a French Catholic teacher mother and English Protestant father ; she has dual UK-France nationality.-Early life:She was raised in Edgware, Middlesex and educated at a convent, expecting to become a nun,...
(1949–), writer
- Emma Georgina Rothschild
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(1948–), economic historian
- Dorothy L. Sayers
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, author of the Lord Peter WimseyLord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...
books and translator of DanteDurante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
's Divina CommediaThe Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature...
.
- Caroline Series (entry in German version of wikipedia), mathematician
- Matthew Skelton, writer (1971–).
- Cornelia Sorabji
Cornelia Sorabji was the first female barrister from India, a social reformer, and a writer. She was also the first female graduate from Bombay University, and the first woman in the world to read law at Oxford....
, first female Indian barrister, social reformer, and writer
- Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, ConservativeThe Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Prime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
1979-90 and life peerIn the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
- Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby
Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby PC is a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister, she was one of the "Gang of Four" rebels who founded the Social Democratic Party in 1981...
, Liberal DemocratsThe Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
politician and life peerIn the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
- Olive Willis
Olive Margaret Willis was an English educationist and headmistress. She founded Downe House School and was its head for nearly forty years, from 1907 to 1946.-Early life:...
(1877–1964), founder of Downe HouseDowne House School is an independent girls' boarding school in Cold Ash, a village near Newbury, Berkshire, for girls aged 11-18.-History:Downe House was founded in 1907 by Olive Willis, its first headmistress, as an all-girls' boarding school...
- Kara Miller
Kara Miller is a writer and director working in film and television. . She is also credited as K.J. Miller .Kara Miller was born in Jamaica and educated in Jamaica and in Barbados at Harrison College high school...
(1977-), writer and director, Breakthrough BritsBreakthrough Brits is the UK Film Council programme to honour some of Britain's best Black and Asian film-making talent.The program was designed to celebrate and advance the new wave of British film-making talent on the cusp of breakthrough international success...
award winner
External links