Snippets from the Archives

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 ab…

A group of tutors and students from 1921 under the Principalship of Emily Penrose (seated in the second row from the front directly under the central pillar). Sitting next to Miss Penrose is Professor Gilbert Murray, noted Classical scholar, internat…

In 1976 a remarkable collection of letters, books, artwork and ephemera was given to the college by a Somerville alumna, Audrey Kennet (née Withers, 1924-7) and her sister Monica. The gift was made in honour of their parents Dr Percy and Mrs Mar…

Approach to House in the early days of Somerville, almost unrecognisably rural!  The cottages on the right were originally used to house students but were demolished in 1930s to make way for the East quadrangle which is now known as Darbishire.  Belo…

The recent film ‘The Railway Man’ tells the story of Eric Lomax, a British soldier captured by the Japanese in World War 2 and held in Changi Prison before being sent to work on the infamous Burma railway. As well as thousands of soldiers, around 3,0…

On Saturday 28th April 2012, one of the founders of Somerville College and its first Secretary of Council, Mary Ward (also known as Mrs Humphry Ward) was honoured in Oxford with a Blue Plaque on the house in North Oxford where she lived from 1872-188…

The cast on the steps of the library loggia, featuring Edith Pearson (1903) as Dis, Octavia Myers (1903) as Persephone & Henrietta Escreet (1903) as Demeter Demeter was the College Masque, performed to celebrate the opening of the Library in…

Many Somervillians have gone on to great things and in this photo from 1915 we see Somerville College students Dorothy L Sayers (first standing row from the front, far left) and Vera Brittain (same row but at the far right).  Dorothy L Sayers went on…

Reading about the recent untimely death of foreign correspondent Marie Colvin in war-torn Syria, I was reminded of Somervillian Evelyn Irons. Both women were fearless in their determination to report from war zones and both were very often reported t…

A recent addition to the Somerville photo archive is this photo of Katherine Guthrie Wood who was a student at Somerville between 1914 and 1918.  She was amongst the first women students to receive their degrees in 1921 when the university regulation…

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 Foo…

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 apporpri…

Hall and Maitland shortly after construction almost a hundred years ago and below as it is today.  The building was designed by Edward Fisher (brother of historian and politician H.A.L.Fisher) and built in 1913 to house a dining hall, senior common r…

Somerville College was named after the renowned mathemetician, astronomer and scientist, Mary Somerville (1780-1872).  The College is fortunate to own her papers which were given by the descendents of Mary Somerville, the Fairfax-Lucy family. The pap…

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 parti…

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…

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 philos…

In this snap from c 1924, four Somerville students are captured in the snowy grounds of Somerville, playing musical instruments, singing carols and in one case, smoking a cigarette! The photo was given to the College in 1980 by one of the girls, Edit…

The project to upgrade and digitise the catalogue of the papers of  Mary Somerville (1780-1872) is now complete.  For the first time, researchers all over the world will be able to have access to the complete listing of the collection which is owned …

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). …

A group of Somervillians and friends enjoying a day out on the river c 1925. Picture supplied by Edith Standen (1923).  Any identifications gratefully accepted!  Back to Snippets from the Archives

As with many primary sources, the Somerville Minutes of Council were created as an official record of the institution yet they are inadvertently informative about the world outside the College walls. In the 1930s, they provide a valuable account of t…

In 1903 several students in their final year at Somerville got together to entertain their colleagues in College  with a ‘Going-Down Play’.  Dressed as an animal that they considered most closely resembled their nature, they appeared on stage whilst …

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], Jocely…

An unremarkable view of House, at first glance, taken in high summer. But instead of a student wheeling her bicycle on the right, it’s an injured soldier in his Bath Chair, and hospital beds have been placed in the shade of the tree. This is from a p…

Hilda Lorimer – Classics Tutor at Somerville 1896-1934.  Like many of her colleagues, Miss Lorimer divided her time during the First World War between teaching at Oxford and helping with the war effort.  Here she is pictured in the uniform of the Sco…

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 chape…

In the early days of Somerville Hall, the grounds were described in the College Log book as being quite rural and included a meadow, cows and a pig which were later replaced with a donkey and a pony.  The pony, pictured here, was ocasionally pressed …

In 1880 The Graphic magazine published this collection of wood-engraved vignettes of what was then the new Somerville Hall. The engravings were taken from drawings by the first Principal Madeleine Shaw Lefevre and her cousin Mrs Nigel Madan…

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.…

There was a strong dramatic tradition at Somerville in the first half of the twentieth century with plays being written and performed in College most years.  In its dramatic heyday, the College could boast a Second Year play in Michaelmas Term, a Fir…

In this group from 1891, Miss Maitland the Principal (with dark bonnet) is surrounded by her staff and students, including future principal Emily Penrose (3rd from the right in the 3rd row), pioneering Indian lawyer Cornelia Sorabji (far left end of …

Several publicity shots were taken of Somerville life and buildings in about 1933.  Here is a scene of two young ladies relaxing in a room at Somerville – perhaps one of the newly built rooms in East Quad (later renamed Darbishire) ?  Does anyone rec…

The first phase of this project is almost complete, with the catalogue of the collection amended and updated (in compliance with Bodleian guidelines) and the documents themselves curated and rehoused in archival-standard acid-free folders and boxes. …

Winifred Holtby came to Somerville in 1917 following a period of service in France in the First World War.  It was at Somerville that she met Vera Brittain (1914 –  author of  Testament of Youth) and after an initial period of antagonism (fictionalis…

WINIFRED HOLTBY: AN INFORMED VIEW … AND A PRESCIENT ONE?Hugh Gault At the end of May 1929, and after five years of a reforming Conservative government, the first general election at which everybody aged 21 and over could vote had resulted in no clear…