Laboratories

The 1890s were especially difficult years for women studying the natural sciences, partly as a consequence of their being squeezed out of laboratories as the number of men increased greatly. Even Francis Darwin, a man exceptionally sympathetic to women’s education, excluded women from his crowded laboratory classes. Men had to have prior call on laboratory facilities since they, unlike women, were members of the University. Sydney Vines (now in Oxford), argued like many others that making women full members of the university should not happen since it would be prohibitively expensive in terms of new laboratories and equipment (Richmond,1997). 

The women’s colleges had their own small laboratories, though in a letter written on 13 March 1898 by the Girton graduate Ethel Sargant to a prospective student Agnes Robertson (the future Mrs Arber FRS), it was noted that ‘…at Girton, they have very few science students and the laboratory is a howling wilderness’. With some regret, the old-Girtonian admitted that at Newnham, ‘…the laboratory is beautifully fitted up’, and the science dons live in or close to the college. It was, however, the much larger Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women, opened in 1884 and refurbished in 1892, that was the centre for practical work, demonstrations, and occasional lectures. Its existence was due largely to the efforts and financial input of Newnham (although it was open also to the women of Girton) (Richmond, 1997), and it drew its staff mainly from Newnham.   

The Balfour was primarily an undergraduate teaching facility (in 1890, there were 13 women taking elementary botany, but only 2 taking advanced botany; the latter being Part II students studying for the Natural Sciences Tripos (NST), although, in addition, it accommodated a few students doing research. Thus, a number of William Bateson’s genetics researchers, such as Muriel Wheldale, used the Balfour in the 1900s, a situation probably engineered by Edith Saunders, a botanist who was both Director of the Balfour (1890-1914) and Bateson's close collaborator. Women researchers could work in the Botanical Laboratory only if they were approved by the Professor; two who did so were Dorothea Pertz working with Francis Darwin and Gabrielle Matthaei working with FF Blackman.

Richmond (1997) pointed out that the exclusion of women from the main science laboratories actually strengthened their position in the sense that women teachers had to be appointed. The Balfour employed ‘graduate’ Demonstrators in botany, such as Elizabeth Dale and Sibille Ford. Their duties included not only preparing class materials, and guiding students through the work but, also, tutoring women outside the laboratory, especially any advanced students. They would recommend background reading, discuss lecture notes, and, generally, ease the students’ way through the subject. Such opportunities were rare for scholarships, fellowships, and paid posts for women researchers were, overall, in very short supply.

Libraries

The University Library, was situated at the time in the ‘Old Schools’ building next to the Senate House. It represented an unwelcoming environment for women, both physically and in its rules. Described as, ‘a chaotic but atmospheric medley of disparate rooms, uneven floors and dark places for which readers could borrow lamps to light their way’; it was only as recently as 1887 that women under the age of 21 were entitled to apply for a reader's card, while from the autumn of 1891, all women and other non-members of the University were banned from using it outside the hours of 10am to 2pm (previously the hours had extended to 4pm) (Kennedy-Smith, 2020).

When, on top of that, it was proposed that a fee should be introduced, a letter signed by twenty-four women who described themselves as ‘former Students of Girton and Newnham Colleges who have obtained places in Various Triposes’ was submitted to the Library Syndicate. They were happy to pay the proposed fee, they said, but respectfully requested permission ‘to work in the Library with the same freedom as heretofore', explaining politely that for ‘some of us who have morning engagements’ the reduced hours meant that it was now almost impossible for them to use the library for their research. Scientists who signed the letter included Ida Freund, Dorothea Pertz, Edith Saunders, Ellen Wordsworth Darwin, and Mary Bateson.

The Syndicate’s policy became more restrictive, not less, and in May 1897, after thousands protested outside the Senate House against the possibility of allowing degrees for women, the University Librarian, Francis Jenkinson, confirmed that non-members’ access to the library would be limited to the hours before midday. Locked out of the University Library, staff and supporters of Girton and Newnham raised funds to build up their own magnificent college libraries, which today have around 100,000 books each. It was not until 1923 that women finally won the right to become readers on the same terms as the men.

Leisure

The importance of a healthy body, as a compliment to a healthy mind, was recognised from earliest days of the women’s colleges. It was almost a necessity for the young women of Girton. Long walks in the Fens kept them fit for the 3-mile walk into Cambridge; that is if they chose to avoid the horse-drawn cabs irreverently known as 'Girton Hearses'.

By 1894, tennis matches were played between Newnham and Girton, while the two colleges combined annually to face the combined might of Oxford’s Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville College. Matches were played too against teams from London University. The popularity of tennis was such that in the 1890s Girton boasted eight tennis courts (four lawn and four gravel) (McCrone, 1988).  Between 1891 and 1902 Girton had its own 9-hole golf course; though by the turn of the century the popularity of golf was overtaken by hockey and, to a lesser extent, by lacrosse.

Girton’s cycling club, founded in 1894, was instantly popular. Riders had to pass a proficiency test before they were allowed out onto the public roads and were barred, until 1900, from riding on Sundays, and, until 1903, around Cambridge. Cycling was nevertheless the great liberator, students even being allowed from the mid-1900s to cycle after dark.

What became of the women?

Like most of the literature, this site is mainly concerned with the women who went on to do postgraduate research, leaving a published record behind them; an example of history being all about, if not written by, ‘the winners’. Thus, Sibille Ford and Gabrielle Matthaei, who feature elsewhere here, each spent four years at Newnham before earning a first class ‘degree’. 

A question that is seldom asked is What became of the other women?

Some left Cambridge after Part I of the Tripos, and for some there is little or no record of their life after Cambridge. However, an examination of the records that do exist for Ward’s class of Lent term 1897 shows some common outcomes, while revealing a few unusual and fascinating life histories.

More than half the women were teachers, either in secondary schools or colleges, typically teaching girls and moving between two, three, or more institutions in the course of their career. They were in their own way ‘Makers of British Botany’ because they introduced a new generation to the subject. They may have taught a range of natural sciences, reflecting their education at Cambridge, but it is most likely botany was included because it was part of the curriculum in most girls’ schools. These were the young women who would in their turn help the subject to grow.

Amy Headridge’s teaching career took her to South Africa, while Constance Goring taught in France before returning to Britain where she was briefly (1902-04) a tutor to the children of the future Poet Laureate, Robert Bridges (whose wife was a daughter of the architect, Alfred Waterhouse, see also below). Goring managed an airship factory in the Great War.

Ethel Annie Smith was another who joined the teaching profession. She is notable, however, for her philanthropic work, which appears to have been triggered by the Great War. She was Chair of both the Woolwich Branch of the Invalid Children’s Aid Association and of the South East Metropolitan and War Pensions Committee. Her services were finally recognised in the 1936 Honours List when she was made a Member of the British Empire.

Rebekah Holmer was perhaps the most distinguished of the teachers. She was a ‘steamboat lady’ (like Gertrude Crewson and Ethel Smith, below), taking a Master’s degree from the University of Dublin after the briefest of visits (Ayres, 2020): Cambridge did not formally award degrees to women until 1948. After teaching at Dulwich High School, Bath High School, and then Llanelly High School, she was made a lecturer at Bedford College, University of London, during which time (1903-10).  Holmer worked next at Goldsmiths' Training College and then St. Mary's College before moving to India where she served as a professor of physiology at the Lady Hardinge Medical College from 1915 to 1922. One of her major interests was the medicinal properties of local plants. Another interest, led to a book Indian Bird Life, published in 1923 after her return to Britain. Made a Fellow of the Senate of the University of Punjab in 1918, she was the first woman senate member in an Indian university. 

The Christian faith played a significant part in the lives of several of the women. Laura Ingram was the daughter of a clergyman, while Jeannie Garrioch, Dora George, and Eveleen Hunter each married clerics. George’s son (George Reindorp) became the 5^th Bishop of Guildford. After a teaching career lasting thirty years, Pauline Baguley entered the Convent of the Incarnation, in Oxford, in 1930. Sister Pauline of Jesus, as she was known thereafter, was later appointed Assistant to the Superior of the Convent. Geology had been a major interest for Baguley while at Newnham; she joined several field excursions of the Sedgwick Geology Club on at least one of which she was accompanied by Elizabeth Dale (see elsewhere on this site). 

Gertrude Crewdson was another keen geologist. One of the few women from Girton in Marshall Ward’s class, she had a strong affection for her college. In 1900, less than two years after ‘graduating’, she was appointed the college’s Librarian and Registrar; in 1902, she moved on to be its Junior Bursar. Crewdson was a niece of the distinguished architect Alfred Waterhouse. He had designed many college buildings in Cambridge, not least Girton College. He is, perhaps, most celebrated for designing in his trademark ‘Gothic Revival’ style the Town Hall in Gertrude’s home city, Manchester. Crewdson’s Quaker family had for decades had a major interest in the local cotton spinning industry.  She was sadly orphaned at an early age. However, that event allowed her to employ her wealth and quaker principles in purchasing, in 1899, a holiday home for professional women, Homewood, at Woburn Sands in Bedfordshire. Crewdson eventually resigned her post at Girton to give her undivided attention to the House. This was not before she had purchased, and bequeathed to her college, a field lying between it and the Girton Road, so preventing it from being built over. In later years, she travelled in Egypt and Greece, studying their history. Nevertheless, she found time to write a short history of her beloved college.

When in the 1930s, Pauline Baguley entered her convent in Oxford, did she know one of her ex-classmates, Eveleen Hunter, was living only 10 miles away in Sutton Courtney?   After commencing nurse training in 1906 at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, she had by 1913 progressed to be Matron of the Cray Valley Hospital.  Hunter had married the Rev. George Berens-Dowdeswell in 1919, moving to Worcestershire and bringing to an end a long and distinguished career in nursing.  The couple move to Oxfordshire upon his retirement. 

Next:  read about the Women Inspired by Marshall Ward.

References to published work, and other sources

Attendance Register 1896-1929 is held in the library of the Department of Plant Sciences.

Ayres, PG. (2020).  Women and the Natural Sciences in Edwardian Britain.  In Search of Fellowship. London: Palgrave MacMillan.

Kennedy-Smith, Anne. 2020. Online at Kennedy-Smith.com: 'Locked out of the library': 19/08/2020.

McCrone, Kathleen E. 1988.  Playing the Game. Sport and the Physical Emancipation of English Women. 1870-1914. University of Kentucky.

Richmond, Marsha L. 1997. ‘A Lab of One’s Own’. The Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women at Cambridge University, 1884-1914. Isis, 88, 422-455.