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Somerville College
Oxford
View over Somerville's main quad, towards the college's dining hall
Arms: Argent, three mullets in chevron reversed gules, between six crosses crosslet fitched sable.
LocationWoodstock Road, Oxford
Coordinates51°45′34″N 1°15′44″W / 51.75951°N 1.26232°W / 51.75951; -1.26232
Latin nameCollegium De Somerville
MottoDonec rursus impleat orbem
("Until it should fill the world again")
Established1879
Named forMary Somerville
Colours
                             
Sister collegeGirton College, Cambridge
PrincipalAlice Prochaska
Undergraduatesc.400[a]
Postgraduatesc.100[a]
WebsiteCollege website
JCRJCR website
MCRMCR website
Boat clubBoat club website

Somerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located in the north of Oxford, England at the junction between Woodstock Road and Little Clarendon Street. It has approximately 500 students, of whom around 100 are studying for postgraduate degrees, who are known as "Somervillians". Since 2010, its Principal is Alice Prochaska.

Somerville was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall exclusively for educating female students. It was named in honour of the pioneering female mathematician, Mary Somerville, who had died a few years before the college's foundation. From its creation, Somerville was officially non-denominational, deliberately unlike the first women's college in Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall, founded a year earlier, which was strictly Anglican. In 1894, the institution was raised to college status and was re-named. Although the college was permitted affiliation to the University of Oxford, women's education were subject of official discrimination in the university. Originally, female students across the university were not allowed access to university libraries and were forced to study separately from males. It was only in 1920 that female students were allowed to receive degrees and became full members of the university. The college rapidly expanded over the course of the twentieth century. Somerville remained a exclusively female college until 1993 and its first male students were admitted in 1994. Today, the gender-balance of students at the college is roughly equal.

Former students include Dorothy Hodgkin, a Nobel Prize-winning Chemist who both studied and later taught at Somerville; Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female Prime Minister; Dorothy L. Sayers, a noted Crime Writer and Indira Gandhi, twice Indian Prime Minister. As of 2011, Somerville had a financial endowment of £39.3 million.[1]

History

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Foundation

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The idea of colleges dedicated to women's education originated in the 1840s. In 1848, an educational institution for women, Queen's College,[b] was established in Oxford as a secondary school. Although it had no connection with the University of Oxford, it proved extremely popular and was followed by the opening of a number of secondary schools for girls across the United Kingdom.[2] The increase in female secondary education led to demands for women to be admitted to British universities to continue their studies.[3]

In response to popular demands, the University of Oxford permitted women to take its Local Examinations (entrance examination) from 1870, following the examples of the universities of Cambridge, Durham and Edinburgh.[4] In 1869, the first Oxbridge college for women, Girton College, Cambridge, was founded by Emily Davies who had been a major campaigner for women's education, although women were not permitted to receive degrees.[5] It was soon followed by Newnham College, Cambridge in 1871.[6]

Developments of women's education in Cambridge was paralleled by similar demands in Oxford. In 1873, Worcester College mistakenly offered a place to a student who had passed the entrance exam, Annie Rodgers, without realising that she was female.[7] It quickly rescinded its offer.[8] Support for the foundation of a women's college in Oxford grew significantly in the late 1870s, however, its proponents were divided on the issue of religion.[9] One group, known as the "Christ Church camp", believed that women's education should be guided by the Anglican church alone, while another, the "Balliol camp", believed that a non-denominational institution should be founded and had close ties to the Liberal Party.[9][10] Among the Balliol camp's members was the philosopher T. H. Green and John Percival, principle of Trinity College.[10]

Modern-day view of Walton House, the college's original building

In 1878, the two factions agreed to collaborate and established a group called the Association for Promoting the Education of Women in Oxford (AEW).[9] The group negotiated with the University on the terms on which female students would be admitted, and drew up the plans for two institutions, which they termed residential halls.[11] The two halls created by the institution were divided by faction, with Lady Margaret Hall (LMH), founded in 1878, as an Anglican institution, and Somerville Hall, founded in 1879, as a non-denominational one.[c][13] Both new colleges opened to students in the same year.[12]

The name "Somerville Hall" was chosen in honour of Mary Somerville (1780-1872), a self-taught female mathematician and scientist who had died several years before the college's foundation.[12] It was felt that the name would reflect the virtues of liberalism and academic success which the college wished to embody.[11] Madeleine Shaw Lefevre was chosen as the first Principal because, although not a well-known academic at the time, her background was felt to reflect the college's political stance.[14] Because of its status as both women's college and non-denominational institution, Somerville was widely regarded within Oxford as "an eccentric and somewhat alarming institution."[15]

Somerville Hall was located within Walton House, on the Woodstock Road, which was leased from St John's College. They purchased the site in 1880 amid fears that the men's colleges might, in the future, repossess the site for their own purposes.[16] By October 1879, the college had 12 resident students.[16]

College status and expansion, 1879-1993

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An 1834 portrait of Mary Somerville, from whom the college took its name

Initially, Somerville students were not subject to the same regulations as male students at Oxford and not permitted the same status as full members of the university.[17] Just two of the original 12 students admitted in 1879 remained in Oxford for three years, the period for which male students had to remain to complete a bachelor's degree.[18] Increasingly, however, as the college admitted more students, it became more formalized. Somerville appointed its first in-house tutor in 1892 and, by the end of the 1890s, female students were permitted to attend lectures in almost all colleges.[19] In 1894, Somerville Hall was renamed, becoming Somerville College.[20]

In the 1910s, Somerville became known for its support for the women's suffrage campaign.[21] During World War I, the college was requisitioned as a military hospital and the college's students were transferred to accommodation in Oriel College.[21] Because many male students had left Oxford to enlist in the military, Somerville was able to rent St Mary Hall Quad which they bricked off from the rest of the college to segregate it from the Oriel's remaining male students.[22] Somerville itself remained a hospital until 1919, during which time it accommodated Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves among others.[23]

In 1920, female students allowed to matriculate, thus achieving the status of full members of the University.[24] For the first time, too, women were allowed to receive degrees after sitting their final examinations (finals).[25] Other restrictions on female students were also gradually reduced. In 1927, the college's rowing club was finally permitted to take part in the Summer Eights race, following the rejection of an earlier demand in 1922 amid fears that it might harm the women's reproductive abilities.[26] All female students had to be chaperoned when in the presence of male students from the college's inception. The practice was finally abolished in 1925, although male visitors to the college were still subject to a curfew.[27] In 1964, Somerville became one of the first Oxford colleges to abandon the policy of locking its gates at night to prevent students staying out late.[28]

  • Expansion in size

Coeducation, 1993-present

[edit]
Somerville's Wolfson Building, designed by Philip Dowson and competed in 1967, facing onto Walton Street

Starting in the 1970s, the traditionally all-male colleges in Oxford began to admit female students.[29] Since it was assumed that recruiting from a wider demographic would guarantee better students, there was pressure on single-sex colleges to change their policy to avoid falling down the rankings.[30] All-female colleges, like Somerville, found it increasingly difficult to attract good applicants and fell to the bottom of the intercollege academic rankings during the period.[31] In 1994, Somerville became the second-last college (after St Hilda's) to become coeducational.[32]

Location and buildings

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Somerville's library, built in 1904, was the first library in a women's college

Somerville College has been located on the same site since its foundation in 1879.[33] Originally, the college was based in Walton House, a 19th century building with a large garden, which it purchased outright in 1880 and later modernised.[34] The site occupied a roughly square piece of land with its entrance on Woodstock Road.[d] The college subsequently purchased more land and today it is bordered on the south by Little Clarendon Street, in the east by Walton Street and in the north by the Radcliffe Infirmary and Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ) where the Blavatnik School of Government and Maths Insitute are based.[33] The large Church of St Aloysius Gonzaga on Woodstock Road, which has no connection with the college, occupies a part of the site and is bordered on three sides by the college.[33]

Today, the college comprises a large central quad around which most of the college's buildings are situated with two smaller front quads towards the front gate.

The main quad, formerly a large garden, begun to be encircled in the late 19th century. In 1886, the college begun building "West", its first new building at the far side of the college, in order to keep up with expanding demand for accomodation.[34] Its architecture was inspired by Newnham, and was designed by Harry Wilkinson Moore.[34] Somerville's library, which forms most of the northern boundary, opened in 1904 and was the first library in a women's college at the time.[35] It was designed by Basil Champneys, known for building the John Rylands Library in Manchester. Originally, many of the library's books came from the bequest of the Utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill's personal library to the college and many of these, complete with Mill's original marginalia, are preserved as a special collection.[36] From 1913, the college began construction on a dining hall and nearby Maitland buildings which form the eastern boundary.[37]

Darbishire quad, built in 1933

The college's chapel was built between 1933 and 1934 and was the gift of an alumna, Emily Kemp. The college was initially reluctant to accept a chapel of any kind, but eventually gave its approval to a "building for religious purposes", despite the protestation of some students.[38] Reflecting its interdenominational nature, the chapel has little internal decoration and is currently used for Christian and secular events.

The college opened two new accommodation blocks in 2011, facing the University's ROQ site to the north.[39]

In the 1960s, three concrete buildings in the brutalist style were built on the main quad on designs by the architect Philip Dowson. Vaughan and Fry, overlooking Little Clarendon Street, are identical copies. Fry is the college's only exclusively-graduate student accommodation building. Wolfson overlooks Walton Street.[40]

The two front quads, known as Traffic and Darbishire quads, are considerably smaller. Traffic quad is tarmacked and bordered by Walton House and Hostel buildings. The front quad, known as Darbishire, is encircled by a single residential building and was the college's only purpose-built quad. The college's main gate and porters' lodge opens onto Darbishire quad.

People associated with the college

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Principals and Fellows

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Molecular Structure of vitamin B12, discovered by Dorothy Hodgkin
See also: Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford (category)

The head of the college is known as the Principal. Since its foundation in 1879, Somerville has had eleven principals:

  1. Madeleine Shaw Lefevre (Principal of Somerville Hall 1879–1889)[41]
  2. Agnes Maitland (Principal of Somerville Hall 1889–1894, Principal of Somerville College 1894–1906)[42]
  3. Emily Penrose, DBE (1906–1926)[42]
  4. Margery Fry (1927–1930)[42]
  5. Helen Darbishire (1930–1945)[42]
  6. Janet Vaughan, DBE (1945–1967)[42]
  7. Barbara Craig (1967–1980)
  8. Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth (1980–1989)
  9. Catherine Hughes (née Pestell; 1989–1996)[e]
  10. Fiona Caldicott, DBE (1996–2010)
  11. Alice Prochaska (2010–2017)
  12. Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (2017–)

Somerville has had one Nobel Prize-winning fellow. The chemist, Dorothy Hodgkin, who also studied at Somerville, returned to the college and became a fellow in 1936, a position she held until 1977. Hodgkin pioneered protein crystallography and worked on the molecular structure of penicillin and insulin. She was also responsible for the discovery of vitamin B12. In 1965, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and was later awarded the Order of Merit.[43]

Alumni

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See also: Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford (category)
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1979-90
Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, 1966-77 and 1980-84.

Somerville has educated several leading political figures, including two Prime Ministers. Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, studied Chemistry at Somerville between 1943 and 1947.[44] She was elected in 1979, and was twice re-elected, ending her term in 1990. Her term in power was marked by a number of crises including the Falklands War, Miners' Strike and the Big Bang. Indira Gandhi (1917-84), who was twice Prime Minister of India, studied History at Somerville, but was prevented from finishing her degree by ill-health.[44] Gandhi served as president between 1966-77 and again between 1980-84. She presided over a war with Pakistan and a war of independence in East Pakistan which resulted in an Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh. Gandhi also presided over a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 during which she ruled by decree and made lasting constitutional change. She was assassinated in 1984 in the aftermath of an attack on Sikh militants.[44] Shirley Williams (born 1930) also attended the college.[44] Originally a Labour MP and Cabinet Minister, Williams was one of the rebel "Gang of Four" who founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. Between 2001 and 2004, she served as leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords.

Dorothy Hodgkin, chemist and Nobel laureate
A. S. Byatt, novelist and Booker Prize winner

A number of important literary figures also studied at Somerville. These include Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), a noted crime fiction writer, best known for her detective series starring the detective Lord Peter Wimsey. She also wrote tracts on feminism, Christian humanism and made several notable translations of Italian Early Modern literary works. A. S. Byatt (born 1936), novelist and poet whose work won the Man Booker Prize in 1990, also studied at Somerville, as did Vera Brittain (1893-1970), a writer and noted pacifist. Brittain served as an ambulance driver on the Western Front during World War I and related her experiences in a number of best-selling memoires. She campaigned for pacifist causes in the Interwar, and was included on Nazi Black Book death-list during World War II. Winifred Holtby (1898-1935), an author and journalist, left the rights to her unpublished work South Riding (1936) to the college on her death. South Riding subsequently became a best-seller and was adapted into a film and television series, funding a scholarship and two fellowships at the college.[45]

A number of figures from journalism, the arts and in academia also studied at Somerville. Esther Rantzen (born 1940), a television presenter and the creator of ChildLine, studied at the college. Emma Kirkby (born 1949) is a noted soprano singer and was made a Dame in 2007. Kay Davies (born 1951), another alumna, was also made a Dame for contributions in the field of human genetics. Averil Cameron (born 1940), is a noted Byzantinist and served as Warden (equivalent to Principal) of Keble College, Oxford.

Formers students of Somerville belong to an alumni group, the Somerville Association, which was originally founded in 1888.[46]

Student life

[edit]
Westward view on the college's main quad towards Penrose, Wolfson and Park buildings (left to right)

There are approximately 500 students at Somerville of whom the majority, around 400, are undergraduates.[39]

Somerville rates highly for overall student satisfaction in the annual Oxford University Student Barometer, conducted by the University. In 2012, Somerville was rated as the best college in the university by overall satisfaction. In common with all former women's colleges in Oxford, however, Somerville has a tradition of achieving poor results on the annual Norrington Table in which colleges are rated by academic performance.[47] In 2013, Somerville was rated 29th out of 30 colleges in the University, beating LMH.[f][48] In 2013, the college opened a bar, named The Terrace, overlooking Little Clarendon Street.

A Somerville team won University Challenge, a televised quiz show on the BBC, in 2002. Another Somerville team reached the final round of the competition in 2014, although it was criticized in the national press for being composed exclusively of male students.[49]

Organisations and societies

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Somerville students and faculty are automatically members of one of the college's three common rooms. The Junior Common Room (JCR) represents the college's undergraduate community while the Middle Common Room (MCR) represents postgraduates and the Senior Common Room (SCR) fellows and postdoctoral students.[50] Each common room has its a room of its own in the college, and represents its members to outside bodies as well as providing its own welfare services.[51] Both JCR and MCR elect a member each year to serve as common room president and are affiliated to Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) which, in turn, is itself affiliated to the National Union of Students (NUS).[50]

The college has a number of internal student-led societies and clubs. Undergraduate students produce a termly magazine entitled The Somerville Siren[51] and the college also has its own choir. It has released two CDs on the Stone Records label: "Requiem Aeternam" (2012) and "Advent Calendar" (2013).[52] The college also has affiliations with an educational charity in Ghana.[51]

Somerville holds a triennial ball in collaboration with Jesus College, Oxford. The 2013 Somerville-Jesus Ball received national press coverage amid controversy over poor organisation.[53]

Sports

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Rowing blade in the colours of Somerville College Boat Club (SCBC)

Coat of arms and motto

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Like all Oxford colleges, Somerville has a variety of symbols and colours which are associated with it. The college's colours, which feature on the college scarf and on the blades of its boats, are red and black. The combination was originally adopted in the 1890s.[20]

The two colours also feature in the college's coat of arms which depicts three mullets in chevron reversed gules, between six crosses crosslet fitched sable. The college's motto is Donec rursus impleat orbem which was originally the motto of the Somerville family.[20] The Latin motto itself is described as "baffling" as, although it translates as "Until It Should Fill the World Again", what the subject of the sentence ("it") is left unspecified.[20]

In fiction

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b The exact number of undergraduate and graduate students admitted to study at Somerville varies by each academic year.
  2. ^ Not to be confused with The Queen's College, Oxford, a full college of the University, established in 1341, which at the time admitted men only.
  3. ^ Originally LMH only admitted students who were practicing members of the Church of England.[12]
  4. ^ Woodstock Road was originally known as St Giles Road West.[33]
  5. ^ As the statutes of the College did not permit the Principal to marry, Miss Pestell resigned, married and was re-elected Principal as Mrs. Hughes. As a result, however, there was a two-week period in 1991 when the College had no Principal.
  6. ^ Permanent Private Halls are ranked separately on the Norrington Table to colleges.[48]

References

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  1. ^ Donors' Report 2011, p. 22.
  2. ^ Batson 2008, pp. 3–4.
  3. ^ Batson 2008, p. 9.
  4. ^ Batson 2008, p. 6.
  5. ^ Batson 2008, pp. 10–2.
  6. ^ Batson 2008, p. 13.
  7. ^ Adams 1996, p. 9.
  8. ^ Batson 2008, p. 16.
  9. ^ a b c Batson 2008, p. 21.
  10. ^ a b Adams 1996, p. 11.
  11. ^ a b Batson 2008, p. 23.
  12. ^ a b c Brockliss 2016, p. 374.
  13. ^ Batson 2008, pp. 22–3.
  14. ^ Batson 2008, p. 24.
  15. ^ Batson 2008, p. 25.
  16. ^ a b Batson 2008, p. 26.
  17. ^ Brockliss 2016, p. 375.
  18. ^ Batson 2008, p. 28.
  19. ^ Brockliss 2016, p. 375; 418.
  20. ^ a b c d Adams 1996, p. 47.
  21. ^ a b Adams 1996, p. 78.
  22. ^ Adams 1996, p. 89.
  23. ^ Adams 1996, p. 93.
  24. ^ Batson 2008, p. xv.
  25. ^ Adams 1996, pp. 150–1.
  26. ^ Adams 1996, pp. 209–10.
  27. ^ Adams 1996, p. 215.
  28. ^ Brockliss 2016, p. 669.
  29. ^ Brockliss 2016, p. 572.
  30. ^ Brockliss 2016, pp. 577–8.
  31. ^ Brockliss 2016, p. 613.
  32. ^ Brockliss 2016, p. 573.
  33. ^ a b c d Adams 1996, p. xix.
  34. ^ a b c Adams 1996, p. 42.
  35. ^ Adams 1996, pp. 41–2.
  36. ^ Adams 1996, pp. 65–6.
  37. ^ Adams 1996, p. 84-6.
  38. ^ Adams 1996, pp. 181–4.
  39. ^ a b About Somerville.
  40. ^ Fair 2014.
  41. ^ Batson 2008, pp. 24–5.
  42. ^ a b c d e Batson 2008, p. 291.
  43. ^ Adams 1996, p. 187.
  44. ^ a b c d Somerville Stories.
  45. ^ Adams 1996, p. 191.
  46. ^ Adams 1996, p. 43.
  47. ^ Batson 2008, p. 288.
  48. ^ a b The Oxford Student 2013.
  49. ^ The Independent 2014.
  50. ^ a b Junior Common Room.
  51. ^ a b c 2011 Prospectus.
  52. ^ Somerville Choir Discography.
  53. ^ The Guardian 2013.
  54. ^ Adams 1996, p. 195.
  55. ^ The Guardian 2014.
  56. ^ The Oxford Student 2015.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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  • Chapman, Allan (2007). Mary Somerville and the World of Science. Bristol: Canopus. ISBN 9780953786848.
  • Hope Mansfield, Catherine; St. Clare Byrne, Muriel (1922). Somerville College, 1879-1921. Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 557727946.
  • Salter, H. E.; Lobel, Mary D. (1954). "Somerville College". The Victoria History of the County of Oxford. Vol. 3: The University of Oxford. London: British History Online. pp. 343–347.
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