Frances Buss

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frances Mary Buss (1827-1894) was an English pioneer of women's education.

Wikisource has an original article from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica about:

Buss, Frances Mary

Buss founded the North London Collegiate School in 1850, and remained its principal all her life. Under her headship, the school became a model of girls' education. She also founded the Camden School for Girls in 1871, with the aim of offering more affordable education for girls.

Buss was at the forefront of campaigns for the endowment of girls' schools, and for girls to be allowed to sit public examinations and to enter universities. She became the founding president of the Association of Head Mistresses in 1874, and was also involved in establishing the Teachers' Guild in 1883 and the Cambridge Training College (later Hughes Hall) for training teachers in 1885.

She was also a suffragette, participating in the Kensington Society, a woman's discussion society, and the London Suffrage Committee.

Her name is associated with that of Dorothea Beale in a satirical rhyme:

Miss Buss and Miss Beale,

Cupid's darts do not feel…