Lucy Caroline Cavendish, Lady Frederick Cavendish (née Lyttelton, September 5, 1841 – April 22, 1925) was a pioneer of women's education.[1]
The second daughter of George William Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton, she became Maid of Honour to Queen Victoria in 1863. Her mother's sister was married to William Ewart Gladstone. The following year she married Lord Frederick Cavendish, the second-eldest son of the Duke of Devonshire. It is here that her link with the University of Cambridge began, as her father-in-law was the University's Chancellor. On 7 June 1864 she married Lord Frederick Cavendish, who entered Parliament in 1865 and was assassinated by Irish nationalists during the Phoenix Park Murders on 6 May 1882, the day he took the oath of office of Chief Secretary for Ireland.
Lucy Cavendish held the post of President of the Yorkshire Ladies Council of Education from 1883 to 1912. She declined the offer of becoming the Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge in 1884. She was a member of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education and was a founding member of the Council of the Girls' Public Day School Company (which had been founded by her father the 4th Lord Lyttleton).
On 6 October 1904 she received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at the formal inauguration of the University of Leeds for "notable service to the cause of education".[2]
Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge was named in her honour.[1] She was the great aunt of one of its founders, Margaret Braithwaite.