Somerville College, Oxford

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Somerville College, Oxford
Image:Sheild.png

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	Jason Arthur
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.

1 History
2 Principals of Somerville Hall and Somerville College
3 Notable alumnae
4 Academics/teachers
5 References
6 Notes

[edit] 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 50% of students are men.

[edit] 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 <ref>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.</ref>)
Dame Fiona Caldicott (1996 - present)

[edit] Notable alumnae

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

[edit] Academics/teachers

[edit] References

Somerville for women: an Oxford college 1879 - 1993, Pauline Adams (OUP, 1996) ISBN 0-19-920179-X

[edit] Notes

Permanent Private Halls at the University of Oxford
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
Blackfriars \| Campion Hall \| Greyfriars \| Regent's Park College \| St Benet's Hall \| St Stephen's House \| Wycliffe Hall