Mary Ward (also known as Mrs Humphry Ward) was a well-known novelist in the late nineteenth century who was instrumental in the foundation of Somerville in 1879. She was the first secretary of the Somerville Council (a position jointly held with Mrs Vernon Harcourt) and worked tirelessly, preparing for the arrival of new students. It was Mary Ward who suggested… Read More »Mrs Humphry Ward
Maude Clarke was a tutor in history at Somerville from 1919 till her early death in 1935. A noted medievalist in a still largely male academic world, she published important and sometimes controversial work on fourteenth century England with a particular focus on constitutional history. We have eight of her publications in the College library but many more books that she… Read More »Maude Clarke
This photo was taken in France during the First World War and shows on the left, Captain W S B Bosanquet. Bosanquet was an officer with the Coldstream Guards and the father of Philippa Foot, the eminent philosopher and Fellow of Somerville. Mrs Foot died in October 2010 and amongst her effects was this photo and a number of letters from her father to… Read More »First World War Trench
This clipping from The Sphere in 1922 shows a group of jubilant Somerville students clutching what appear to be degree certificates outside the Sheldonian. It was only in 1920 that women were admitted as members of Oxford University and therefore able to receive degrees, so these students were some of the first women to graduate from the University. Unfortunately we have… Read More »“A Group of Merry Oxford Girl Students”
The College chapel (architect Courteney Theobald) was built in 1935 following a donation from former student, Emily Kemp. However, as Somerville was specifically founded without religious affiliation, some contemporaries saw the building of a chapel as contrary to this founding principle. Construction went ahead in spite of objections but the chapel was never consecrated and its one stained glass window (designer… Read More »The Chapel
Somerville boat club celebrates its 90th anniversary this year! Here is a photo from its early days in 1925 with a boat crew being coached by ‘Best, the waterman’ in a flat cap. Crew members are: Stroke: Dominica Legge (1923), [unidentified], Jocelyn Matthews (1924), Enid Jeeves (1924), Marjorie Seaver (1924), Lucy Sutherland (1925), Agnes Newbigin (1925), [unidentified]. As ever, any… Read More »Somerville Boat Club
As the opening of the new ROQ buildings grows nearer, it seems appropriate to show the opening ceremony of a Somerville building from years gone by. This is an informal snap taken at the 1935 opening of the East Quadrangle (now know as Darbishire). The ceremony took place at the Gaudy for that year, when Dorothy L Sayers happened to be… Read More »Opening of Darbishire (East as was)
A glimpse of what we now know as ‘traffic quad’ or Fellows’ car park, shortly after the construction of Darbishire (East) in the mid 1930s. Note the lack of plants but the addition of a high brick wall to screen the pathway through to the main quad. Votes for reinstating the wall? Back to Snippets from the Archives
Last weekend saw the opening of Somerville’s new accommodation buildings for undergraduates by the Chancellor of the University Lord Patten of Barnes. One of the floors in the new building has been named the Gilbert Murray Floor so it seems apporpriate to devote this post to Professor Murray and his association with Somerville. Professor Gilbert Murray was both a great classical scholar and an influential internationalist. Regius… Read More »Gilbert Murray
Charlotte Green was a member of Somerville Council from 1884-1929 and its Vice-President from 1908-1926. She was the sister of poet and literary critic John Addington Symonds, the aunt of future Somerville Principal Dame Janet Vaughan, wife of philosopher T H Green (one of the founding members of Somerville Council) and champion of higher education for women. At one stage she was considered to… Read More »Mrs T H Green