This is the first in a series of weekly blogs from Queen Mary University of London Archives celebrating Women’s History Month.
The series starts with a profile of the first students to enroll at Westfield College in 1882.
In 1878 London University announced that, following the passing of the Enabling Act in 1876, all scholarships, prizes and degrees (excepting medicine) would be open to men and women equally. This led to a flurry of activity in the London area, including the opening of Westfield College in Hampstead. The first five Westfield students arrived on Monday 2 October in 1882. They were Frances A. Millington Synge, 19, from Blackheath; Alicia Sophia Bleby, 25, from Tuffnell Park (pictured left); Margaret G Brooke, 19, from Essex; Frances Anne Georgina Tristram, 18, from Durham and Emily Florence Thompson, 18, from Tregoney, Cornwall (pictured right).
The entrance exam they had taken to gain admission to the College required ‘only a fair English education’, but, as women, a fair English education would have been hard to come by. The teaching in girls’ schools was often poor, with an emphasis on accomplishment rather than understanding. Some girls were home tutored, but the quality of governesses and tutors was variable and lessons often consisted solely of the dreaded ‘reading aloud’. There were also parents who declined to arrange any formal education for their daughters, informing them they could learn second-hand from their brothers. Margaret Brooke and Frances Tristram had both been educated at home, the other three students in girls’ schools. At the time, many people questioned the value of a university education for women, and there was a resulting lack of demand from women for university education. This meant the first five students had to overcome attitudinal as well as educational barriers to begin their college careers.
The founder and mistress of Westfield, Constance Maynard, described the first students as ‘so warm, so bright, so enthusiastic….they would make anything succeed’ but most of them, not having had a systematic education, were ‘not forward in the main subjects to be learned’. Whilst at Westfield, they studied a variety of subjects including classics, moral philosophy, French, English, and natural sciences. The first annual report describes the students at the end of the first year as ‘eagerly at work in their various stages, delighted with their pretty rooms, and entering heartily into the spirit of a happy College life.’
Of the five, only Emily Thompson (a Dudin Brown Scholar) and Alicia Bleby (a Mrs Sanders Stephen’s scholar), went on to take their degrees. Margaret Brooke passed the Matriculation exam in 1884, but Frances Millington Synge and Frances Tristram both left without any qualifications, reflecting the difficulties faced by students with varied educational backgrounds.
The five students were all the daughters of clergymen, suggesting that Westfield’s status as a ‘Christian College for Ladies’ was important to prospective students and their parents. On leaving Westfield, Frances Millington Synge, Margaret Brooke and Frances Tristram all undertook missionary work. Emily Thompson became a Headmistress at Oak Hill House School in Hampstead, and Alicia Bleby became the Principle of Rondebosch Girls’ High School in Cape Town.
To learn more about Westfield students visit our gallery The Students’ Experience of Westfield College or search the Westfield catalogue. If you have any questions or to arrange a visit to the archives please email us at: archives@qmul.ac.uk.