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.

Contents

[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 [1])
  • Dame Fiona Caldicott (1996 - present)

[edit] Notable alumnae

See also Former students of Somerville College, Oxford

[edit] Academics/teachers

See also Category:Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford


[edit] References

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

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ 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.


Colleges of the University of Oxford

Arms of the University

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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