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Sarah Butler

April 1917: Miss Lorimer takes a Leave of Absence

Hilda Lorimer was Somerville’s Tutor in Classics (and subsequently Tutor in Classical Archaeology). A Scotswoman from Dundee, she became a fellow in 1896, having taken a 1st in Classics at Girton College, Cambridge. In 1914-15, she taught Vera Brittain, who wrote in Testament of Youth of Hilda Lorimer’s kindness and of her seeming desire to do more than just teach during the war.… Read More »April 1917: Miss Lorimer takes a Leave of Absence

May 1917: The view from the home front

The Somerville JCR held two meetings in May 1917. The subjects under discussion included the usual items of college business such as the river rules, the storage of bicycles, noise in the quad and a vote on taking a college photograph. Issues reflecting the wider concerns of the civilian population were also under consideration and highlight the effects of the… Read More »May 1917: The view from the home front

June 1917: Bertha Phillpotts, the inadvertent civil servant

Somerville was the first women’s college in Oxford to attract research funding, with an endowment from Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle in 1912. The Icelandic scholar Bertha Phillpotts, of Girton College Cambridge, became the first Lady Carlisle Research Fellow in 1913. Originally appointed for five years, her tenure ended prematurely in 1917, due to the intervention of Lady Carlisle herself. Early… Read More »June 1917: Bertha Phillpotts, the inadvertent civil servant

July 1917: Transportation and the long vacation

In July 1917, Somerville College held its first Vacation Term. There were (and are) strict rules governing residence for students at Oxford, rules with which Somervillians complied (even though they had yet to be admitted as members of the University). One rule was that students had to leave college at the end of term. Before the war, many academics spent the  summer break travelling abroad for… Read More »July 1917: Transportation and the long vacation

August 1917: “Miss Sorabji’s Work in India”

“Of all the varying forms of war-work on which members of the SSA are engaged perhaps none is more valuable or more interesting than Miss Sorabji’s.” SSA Annual Report 1917 Cornelia Sorabji was a student at Somerville between 1889 and 1892, the first Indian woman to study at Oxford and the first woman to read Law at the University. After completing her… Read More »August 1917: “Miss Sorabji’s Work in India”

September 1917: Rev. Constance Coltman

In September 1917, Constance Coltman became the first British woman to be ordained in one of the mainstream Protestant churches, when she became a Congregationalist minister. Constance Todd’s father, George, was a headmaster and her mother Emily had been among the first women in England to study medicine (although she did not practice). Constance was awarded an exhibition to read… Read More »September 1917: Rev. Constance Coltman

December 1917: The Oxford Bed

In the Michaelmas term of 1917, Somervillians began fundraising for the New Hospital for Women. By this stage of the war, medical provision for the civilian population was under severe strain, as military requirements took precedent in the deployment of resources and personnel. Since the beginning of the century, attempts had been made to address issues of mother and child… Read More »December 1917: The Oxford Bed