Marjorie Reeves (1905-2003) read History at St Hugh’s then acquired a teaching diploma and a PhD from London University on medieval mysticism and heresy. She taught History at a teachers’ training college in Camberwell before becoming Tutor in History for the Home Students, thus beginning a 65-year association with St Anne’s. Her work on Abbot …
Dora Livock (d.1968) was a Fellow of St Anne’s from 1957 to 1961 as Bursar and then Treasurer. She retired early through ill health but in her short time at the College was a key figure. She brought with her professional skills in accountancy and administration, having in 1926 been one of the first women to …
Kirstie Morrison (1903-1998) grew up in St Andrew’s and came to Oxford as a Home Student in 1923. By her own account she was told by another college that she was “not university quality” before taking the Home Students’ exam and winning a scholarship. She took a First in English and taught briefly at Bradford Grammar …
Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) was born in Dublin but grew up mostly in London. She read Greats at Somerville, taking a First in 1942. A period as an assistant principal in the Treasury was followed by relief work for the UN with refugees in Belgium and Austria. Discovery of Sartre and other existentialists led to a …
Margery May (Booth) (1928-2000) came to St Anne’s as an Exhibitioner in 1947. In 1954 she became Lecturer in French, and in 1958 Tutor and Fellow. After her retirement she was Emeritus Fellow and then Senior Research Fellow. Her research areas were mediaeval French and particularly Provençal literature, and philology and history of the French language; …
Mary Kearsley (1931-2013) was at Somerville and at Manchester University before coming to St Anne’s in 1958 as Tutor in Mathematics, though her research area was theoretical physics. She published on potential theory and Newtonian gravitation, and, a brilliant linguist, was one of the translators from Russian of Landau and Lifshitz’s Electrodynamics of continuous media. …
Elizabeth Ely (1932-1961) died tragically young of cancer after a brilliant early career as an academic lawyer. She read Law at St Anne’s, winning a Winter Williams Law Scholarship and a First, and was President of the Junior Common Room. She took the BCL at Oxford and LL.M at Yale, returning to St Anne’s as …
Annie Rogers (1856-1937) grew up in an Oxford academic family and in 1873 was entered in the newly established exams set by Oxford’s Delegacy of Local Examinations. Having come top in both junior and senior examinations, she was automatically offered an Exhibition at either Balliol or Worcester, until it was discovered that she was a girl, …
Bertha Johnson (1846-1927) became involved in promoting women’s higher education in Oxford in the 1870s. She was secretary to Lady Margaret Hall from 1880 to 1914, and to the Association for the Education of Women from 1883 to 1894. The Home Students however were her chief responsibility, and the AEW made her their Principal in 1894, …