Jump to content

List of people associated with Somerville College, Oxford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following is a list of notable people associated with Somerville College, Oxford, including alumni and fellows of the college. This list consists almost entirely of women, due to the fact that Somerville College was one of the first two women's colleges of the University of Oxford, admitting men for the first time in 1994.[1] The college and its alumni have played a very important role in feminism.

Somervillians include prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi, Nobel-Prize-winning scientist Dorothy Hodgkin, television personalities Esther Rantzen and Susie Dent, reformer Cornelia Sorabji, writers Marjorie Boulton, Vera Brittain, A. S. Byatt, Susan Cooper, Penelope Fitzgerald, Alan Hollinghurst, Winifred Holtby, Nicole Krauss, Iris Murdoch and Dorothy L. Sayers, politicians Shirley Williams, Margaret Jay and Sam Gyimah, socialite Lady Ottoline Morrell, Princess Bamba Sutherland and her sister, philosophers G. E. M. Anscombe, Patricia Churchland, Philippa Foot and Mary Midgley, psychologist Anne Treisman, archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, actress Moon Moon Sen, soprano Emma Kirkby and numerous women's rights activists. It has educated at least 29 dames, 17 heads of Oxford colleges, 11 life peers, 10 MP's, 4 Olympic rowers,[2] 3 of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945,[3] 2 prime ministers, 2 princesses, a queen consort and a Nobel laureate.

Firsts

[edit]

Somervillians have achieved a good number of "firsts", internationally, nationally and at Oxford University. The most distinguished are the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher, the first and only British woman to win a Nobel Prize in science Dorothy Hodgkin, and the first woman to lead the world's largest democracy Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India for much of the 1970s. Others include Cornelia Sorabji, first female lawyer in India and first Indian national to study at any British university; Anne Warburton, first female British ambassador; Constance Coltman, Britain's first woman to be an ordained Anglican minister; Shriti Vadera, Baroness Vadera, first woman to head a major British bank and chair the Royal Shakespeare Company; Evelyn Sharp, Baroness Sharp, first female permanent secretary, and Carys Bannister, first female neurosurgeon in the UK.

Other firsts include:

Alumni

[edit]

Activists and feminists

[edit]
Lettice Fisher
Margaret Hills
Gurmehar Kaur
Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda
Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh

Architects

[edit]

Archivists

[edit]

Artists

[edit]

Authors

[edit]
Marjorie Boulton
Vera Brittain
A. S. Byatt
Elizabeth Young, Lady Kennet
Nicole Krauss

Children's writers

[edit]
Susan Cooper

Playwrights

[edit]
Margaret Kennedy

Poets

[edit]

Business & finance people

[edit]
Shriti Vadera, Baroness Vadera

Civil servants and diplomats

[edit]
Alyson Bailes
Emma Sky

Education

[edit]
Averil Cameron
Margery Fry
Kathleen Kenyon
Onora O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve

Oxbridge heads of houses

[edit]

Fictional

[edit]

Film and theatre

[edit]
Moon Moon Sen

Health professionals

[edit]
Helen Muir

Mental health professionals

[edit]

Journalism

[edit]

Historians

[edit]
Emma Rothschild
Kate Williams

Classicists and archaeologists

[edit]
Miriam T. Griffin
Joyce Reynolds
Maria Wyke

Medievalists

[edit]

Law

[edit]
Cornelia Sorabji

Linguistics and literature

[edit]
Susie Dent

Music

[edit]
Emma Kirkby

Other

[edit]
Marion Wilberforce
Sunethra Bandaranaike

Philosophers

[edit]
Patricia Churchland
Mary Midgley

Politicians

[edit]
Thérèse Coffey
Sam Gyimah
Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby

Conservatives

[edit]

Labour

[edit]

International

[edit]
Margaret Ballinger

Radio and television

[edit]
Esther Rantzen
Fasi Zaka

Religion

[edit]

Missionaries

[edit]

Royalty and nobility

[edit]
Lady Ottoline Morrell
Raja Zarith Sofiah

Scientists

[edit]
Kay Davies
Marian Dawkins
Joanna Haigh
Angela McLean
Kathleen Ollerenshaw
Caroline Series
Julia Yeomans
  • Jane Kirkaldy (1869–1932), one of the first women to obtain first-class honours in the natural sciences; contributed greatly to the education of the generation of English women scientists
  • Margaret Seward MBE (1864–1939), first Oxford female student to be entered for the honour school of Mathematics; one of the first two female chemistry students at Oxford; earliest chemist on staff at the Royal Holloway (of which she was a founding lecturer); pioneer woman to obtain a first class in the honour school of Natural Science
  • Premala Sivaprakasapillai Sivasegaram (1942), Sri Lankan engineer, regarded as the country's first female engineer; acknowledged as one of twelve female change-makers in Sri Lanka by the parliament

Biologists

[edit]
Botanists
[edit]

Chemists

[edit]

Earth scientists

[edit]

Mathematicians

[edit]

Physicists

[edit]

Social scientists

[edit]
Reem Bassiouney

Anthropologists

[edit]
Katherine Routledge

Economists

[edit]
Alison Wolf, Baroness Wolf of Dulwich

Sport

[edit]
Sophie Le Marchand
Smit Singh

Rowers

[edit]

Spies

[edit]

Translators

[edit]
Anthea Bell

Fellows & staff

[edit]
Tony Bell
Alan Hollinghurst
Chris Lintott
Bertha Phillpotts
Rajesh Thakker
Kevin Warwick
Dorothy Maud Wrinch

Honorary fellows

[edit]

Notable honorary fellows (excluding alumni) are Simon Russell Beale, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nancy Rothwell, and Kiri Te Kanawa. Notable foundation fellows are Charles Powell, Baron Powell of Bayswater, and Wafic Saïd.

Principals

[edit]
Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

The first principal of Somerville Hall was Madeleine Shaw-Lefèvre (1879–1889). The first principal of Somerville College was Agnes Catherine Maitland (1889–1906) when in 1894 it became the first of the five women's halls of residence to adopt the title of 'college', the first of them to appoint its own teaching staff, the first to set an entrance examination, and the first to build a library. She was succeeded by classical scholar Emily Penrose (1906–1926), who established the Mary Somerville Research Fellowship in 1903 which was the first to offer women in Oxford opportunities for research. Alumnae Margery Fry (1926–1930), Helen Darbishire (1930–1945), Janet Vaughan (1945–1967), Barbara Craig (1967–1980) and Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth (1980–1989) also served as Principal of Somerville College.

The current principal is Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon.[120] She succeeded Alice Prochaska at the end of August 2017.[120]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "History of Somerville College, Oxford". Archived from the original on 18 February 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Oxford at the Olympics". University of Oxford. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  3. ^ "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". The Times. 5 January 2008.
  4. ^ "BBC Indira Gandhi 'greatest woman'". BBC News. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  5. ^ "Ruth Adler". University of Edinburgh. 1 June 2018.
  6. ^ "Story: Armitage, Rachelina Hepburn". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Somerville Stories". Somerville College. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  8. ^ a b Manuel 2013, p. 16.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Regan 2009, p. 1.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa "Somerville English: Writers". University of Oxford. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  11. ^ "Cicely Corbett Fisher". Spartacus Educational.
  12. ^ "24 LSE women in 1918". London School of Economics. 28 March 2018.
  13. ^ a b Manuel 2013, p. 40.
  14. ^ a b Birch 2009, p. 494.
  15. ^ "Eddie Ndopu". Somerville Magazine. Somerville College. 2017. pp. 30–31. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  16. ^ a b c d "Reflections on 'Eleanor Rathbone – From Somerville to Westminster, 1893–1946'". Somerville College. 8 February 2016.
  17. ^ a b "Somervillian becomes the first female Rhodes Scholar to have portrait displayed at Rhodes House". Somerville College, Oxford. 14 December 2015.
  18. ^ "Lucy Banda Sichone Profile". rhodesproject.com. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  19. ^ Emma Bartholomew (25 August 2016). "Friends and Pensioners Forum pay tribute to stalwart social justice campaigner Angela Sinclair-Loutit, dead at 95". Islington Gazette. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  20. ^ a b c Singh, Gurhapal (2006). Sikhs in Britain: the making of a community p.45. Darshan Singh Tatla. Zed Books. p. 274. ISBN 978-1-84277-717-6. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
  21. ^ a b c Manuel 2013, p. 33.
  22. ^ a b Adams 1996, p. 118.
  23. ^ a b Walker, Lynne (2004). "Charles, Ethel Mary (1871–1962), architect". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/63129. Retrieved 23 August 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  24. ^ "Marjorie Boulton celebrates 90th birthday at Somerville in English and Esperanto". Somerville College, Oxford. 22 May 2014.
  25. ^ Rust, Stuart (28 September 2017). "Obituary: Esperanto poet Marjorie Boulton". Oxford Mail.
  26. ^ Birch 2009, p. 161.
  27. ^ John Ryle (5 August 2015). "Rosemary Dinnage obituary". The Guardian.
  28. ^ a b Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy: The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present (Batsford: London, 1990), p. 359.
  29. ^ Birch 2009, p. 376.
  30. ^ Birch 2009, p. 409.
  31. ^ Birch 2009, p. 420.
  32. ^ Dennis McLellan (19 May 1992). "Novelist Judith Grossman to Join UCI Faculty: Teaching: Author of 'Her Own Terms' will join Program in Writing in winter term of 1993, ending a long search". Los Angeles Times.[dead link]
  33. ^ Muriel Jaeger
  34. ^ "The Rapture – Liz Jensen". bloomsbury.com. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  35. ^ "Interview with Daisy Johnson, the youngest author shortlisted for a Booker". University of Oxford. 10 October 2018.
  36. ^ "Books added week commencing 26th March 2012". Somerville College Library - New Books. 27 March 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  37. ^ a b c Elizabeth Lake (2019). Spanish Portrait. The Clapton Press, London. ISBN 978-1-9996543-2-0.
  38. ^ a b c d e f g Manuel 2013, p. 41.
  39. ^ "A Haunting Story". Somerville College. 29 September 2017.
  40. ^ Adams 1996, p. 92, 98, 118.
  41. ^ Joanna Richardson. Enid Starkie. John Murray. 1973. pp. 31–2, 34, 36, 40–1.
  42. ^ Manuel 2013, p. 28.
  43. ^ "Neil Spring". Quercus.
  44. ^ a b "Somerville alumnus to release debut novel – Somerville College Oxford". University of Oxford. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  45. ^ "Doreen Wallace". norfolkwomeninhistory.com. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  46. ^ Birch 2009, p. 261.
  47. ^ Batson 2008, p. 210.
  48. ^ "Denise Riley". www.miloszfestival.pl. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  49. ^ "Groundbreakers: A Woman Called Nesca, Sunday 5th June, 10pm BBC2NI – Northern Ireland Screen". Northern Ireland Screen. 3 June 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  50. ^ "Abbatt, Marjorie". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49549. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  51. ^ a b "Baroness Shriti Vadera of Holland Park". Somerville College. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  52. ^ "Curriculum Vitae of Her Excellency Ms. Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of South Africa and Chairperson of the G-77 – Vienna Chapter 1998". G-77. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  53. ^ a b Jane Haggis, Margaret Allen (Spring 2008) Imperial emotions: affective communities of mission in British Protestant women's missionary publications c1880–1920. Journal of Social History 41(3) 691–716
  54. ^ "Elisabeth Murray; Obituary". The Times. 17 February 1998. p. 23. Retrieved 10 August 2020 – via Gale Academic OneFile.
  55. ^ a b c Manuel 2013, p. 45.
  56. ^ Manuel 2013, p. 26.
  57. ^ a b Manuel 2013, p. 44.
  58. ^ a b Manuel 2013, p. 12.
  59. ^ a b Manuel 2013, p. 29.
  60. ^ "Amazing Spider-Man 2 swings to the top of UK box office". TheGuardian.com. 23 April 2014.
  61. ^ Somerville Stories – Dorothy L Sayers Archived 5 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Somerville College, University of Oxford, UK.
  62. ^ Undergraduate at Shrewsbury College, based on Dorothy L. Sayers' own Somerville College.[61]
  63. ^ The absent/present mother, and wife, in Master Keaton
  64. ^ Motion, Andrew: Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life (London: Faber and Faber, 1993), pp. 93–96
  65. ^ "St Bride's" is recognisably based on Somerville College.[64]
  66. ^ "Moon Moon Sen Biography". Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  67. ^ Harrison, Pauline (14 October 2015). "Barbra Tizard (Parker, 1944)". Somerville College Report. p. 46. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  68. ^ Dalziell, Rosamund (1994). "The shaming of Australian culture: refracted shame in Kathleen Fitzpatrick's solid bluestone foundations". Association for the Study of Australian Literature.
  69. ^ "Dorothy Charlesworth Memorial Lecture" (PDF). CUMBERLAND & WESTMORLAND ANTIQUARIAN & ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Newsletter. 69. Spring 2012.
  70. ^ "Biographical sketches of contributors". Journal of Glass Studies. 8: 173–176. 1966. JSTOR 24184893.
  71. ^ "A. M. Dale". Oxford Scholarship Online. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  72. ^ "Prof. Jill Harries | School of Classics | University of St Andrews". www.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  73. ^ Smith, Julia (30 April 2018). "Joyce Reynolds: Sexism and spies — what I've seen in a century". The Times.
  74. ^ "Professor Christina Riggs". All Souls College. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  75. ^ "Historical Manuscripts Commission". The National Archives. August 1995.
  76. ^ Wyke, Maria (1997). Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema, and History. Routledge. p. ix. ISBN 9780415906142.
  77. ^ O'Donoghue, Heather (25 March 2012). "Ursula Dronke obituary". The Guardian.
  78. ^ Taylor, Jane (18 May 2006). "Elspeth Kennedy". The Guardian.
  79. ^ "Profile with Ann Olivarius". rhodesproject.com. 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  80. ^ "Sarah Bilston: Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  81. ^ Hugh Cortazzi (2010). Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits. p. 219.
  82. ^ "Mary Dominica Legge". National Museums Liverpool. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  83. ^ "Harry Escott (1976–)". Faber Music. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  84. ^ Sweeting, Adam (24 May 2007). "The greatest soprano never to sing a note of Verdi". The Daily Telegraph.
  85. ^ a b "BERYL". www.schreibfrauen.at (in German). Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  86. ^ "Three Somervillians recognised in 2019 Birthday Honours". www.some.ox.ac.uk. 10 June 2019.
  87. ^ a b c "Four Somervillian MPs appointed to new roles in Cabinet reshuffle". Somerville College. 20 July 2016.
  88. ^ Manuel 2013, p. 36.
  89. ^ Batson 2008, p. 190.
  90. ^ Jeger, Lena (27 December 1999). "Baroness White of Rhymney". The Guardian.
  91. ^ Manuel 2013, p. 17.
  92. ^ "King's College School Boat Club – Roll of Honour". King's College School, Wimbledon. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  93. ^ "Anthropology diploma students". Pitt Rivers Museum. 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  94. ^ "Somerville alumna to discuss the Trinity on BBC Radio 4". University of Oxford. 6 August 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  95. ^ "Jane, Lady Abdy - obituary". The Telegraph. 12 January 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  96. ^ Ottoline Morrell - Spartacus Educational
  97. ^ "King's College School Boat Club – Roll of Honour". King's College School, Wimbledon. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  98. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Emeritus and Honorary Fellows". Somerville College, Oxford. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  99. ^ Ogilvie 2000, p. 1336.
  100. ^ Ogilvie 2000, p. 948-949.
  101. ^ "Pauline Harrison". University of Sheffield. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  102. ^ a b Manuel 2013, p. 48.
  103. ^ Ogilvie 2000, p. 1043–1044.
  104. ^ "Somerville College Report 2014–2015" (PDF). Global Ocean Commission. pp. 51–2.
  105. ^ a b J. J. O'Connor; E. F. Robertson. "Cobbe biography". University of St Andrews. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  106. ^ a b "Interview with Professor Caroline Series" (PDF). European Women in Maths. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  107. ^ "Ytterbium-Doped Silica Fiber Lasers: Versatile sources for the 1-1.2 μm Region" (PDF). April 1995. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  108. ^ "Somerville's enduring links with India – The Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development at Somerville College, Oxford". Somerville College, Oxford. 2015.
  109. ^ "Obituaries, Somerville College Report 2011/2012".
  110. ^ "An Event at University of Oxford".
  111. ^ "Tributes for coach Proudley". 15 February 2014.
  112. ^ "Tony Bell". Somerville College, Oxford. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  113. ^ "About Sarah". Sarah Broom: the life and work of a New Zealand poet. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  114. ^ "Colin Espie". Somerville College, Oxford. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  115. ^ "Sir Marc Feldmann". Somerville College, Oxford. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  116. ^ "Edith Hall: Curriculum Vitae, July 2008" (PDF). [www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/ The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama]. University of Oxford, UK. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  117. ^ O'Donnell, Kate (2017). "Lotte Labowsky:exiled German scholar, valued Somervillian" (PDF). Somerville Magazine: 10–11. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  118. ^ "Daphne Osborne". The Times. 27 July 2006.
  119. ^ St Hugh's College Oxford Chronicle 1978-1979. St Hugh's College Oxford. 1979.
  120. ^ a b Announcement of new Principal at Somerville College, Somerville College, 9 February 2017.

Bibliography

[edit]