Annie Rogers

Last updated

Annie Rogers
Annie-Rogers-DegreeDay-1920.jpg
Rogers receives her Oxford degree in October 1920
Born15 February 1856
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Died28 October 1937(1937-10-28) (aged 81)
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
NationalityBritish
EducationHome tutored
Occupation(s) University don and teacher
Parent(s)Ann and Thorold Rogers

Annie Mary Anne Henley Rogers (15 February 1856 – 28 October 1937) [1] was a British promoter of women's education. She had an offer of a university place at the University of Oxford withdrawn when it was realised that the candidate was female. [2] She proved that she was capable of achieving first-class Oxford University degrees but could not receive a formal degree until 1920. Her work as a home tutor for women students led to her being recognised as a founder of St Anne's College, Oxford. She wrote a history of the admission of women to Oxford University and its degrees, which was published posthumously.

Contents

Life

Annie Rogers (r) as Queen Eleanor by Lewis Carroll (1863) Annie Rogers plus Mary Jackson by Lewis Carroll.jpg
Annie Rogers (r) as Queen Eleanor by Lewis Carroll (1863)

Rogers was born in Oxford to James Edwin Thorold Rogers and his second wife, Ann Susannah Charlotte ( née  Reynolds). Her father was a campaigner for women's rights and later a Liberal MP. She was the eldest of six children and the only girl. [3] Both her parents supported her academic interests, and it is likely that she was taught ancient languages by her father. [4] : 52–3  They were also personally close; Rogers lived with her mother in a house in St Giles until her mother's death in 1899, when she moved to Museum Road. [4] : 53 

She had been a child model for Lewis Carroll in 1863. [5] Carroll took pictures of her in costume and wrote a poem which he sent with a photograph. The poem read

A picture, which I hope will
B one that you will like to
C. If your Mamma should
D sire one like it, I could
E sily get her one.

Rogers came top in the Oxford school examinations in 1873 and was automatically qualified for an exhibition at Balliol or Worcester College. The offer of a university place was withdrawn when it was realised that she was female. [2] However, according to her Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article, her identity was known and the offer was made as a joke. [1] As a consolation prize Balliol gave her volumes of Homer and her place was given to the boy who had come sixth in the tests. [2]

Rogers was able to sit examinations for women at roughly undergraduate level [6] in 1877 and 1879, giving her the equivalent of first-class marks in Latin and Greek and in Ancient History respectively. She was not formally awarded an Oxford degree until 1920 when women became eligible for admission as full members of the university and were given the right to take degrees. [7] In 1879, with the opening of Somerville College and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University opened its first halls for women students and Rogers, as the only woman with the equivalent of an Oxford University degree became a don (lecturer). In 1881 she became a Senior Tutor in Classics. [4] : 82 

Rogers joined the Association for the Education of Women in Oxford upon its formation in 1879. [1] She was a stalwart member of the Association Committee, attending all but four committee meetings between 1879 and 1920, and eventually becoming the committee's Honorary Secretary after 1894. [4] : 52  Vera Brittain praises her work on the committee as demonstrating her to be a "natural tactician." [4] : 53  She is also credited with overseeing the end of the ascendancy of the AEW over the women's colleges, which gained in independence as a result. [4] : 89–90 

In 1893, she was teaching Latin at Oxford High School. [8] During the controversy in 1896 over whether women should be awarded degrees at Oxford, she was one of the first women to give evidence before the Hebdomadal Council on whether their exclusion from degrees had limited women's prospects in tuition. [4] : 107  In 1897, she wrote a paper titled "The position of women at Oxford and Cambridge" which set out a case for improved funding for women's education. The paper inspired Clara Mordan who in time would fund the new buildings of St Hugh's College, Oxford. [9] Rogers remained a tutor at St Hugh's until 1921, when she resigned this position. [4] : 173 

Notably she became to secretary of the Society of Oxford Home-Students which would, in 1952, become St Anne's College, Oxford. [10] She was a talented tutor to the women who were studying Classics at home and she is acknowledged as one of the founders of St Anne's College. [2] A half-serious reference at the time of the college's being named 'St Anne's' suggested that it had been named partly after her. [11] [4] : 198 

Rogers died in the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford in 1937 after being struck by a lorry in St Giles'. She was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford, on 1 November. In her memory a garden was laid out to the north of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, and a stone bench there bears an inscription in her memory. [12] A blue plaque was erected in her memory at her home at 35 St Giles' on 23 September 2020. [13] [14]

Her book Degrees by Degrees was published in 1938; it is subtitled "The Story of the Admission of Oxford Women Students to Membership of the University". [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somerville College, Oxford</span> College of the University of Oxford

Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Vera Brittain and Dorothy L. Sayers. It began admitting men in 1994. Its library is one of Oxford's largest college libraries. The college's liberal tone derives from its founding by social liberals, as Oxford's first non-denominational college for women, unlike the Anglican Lady Margaret Hall, the other to open that year. In 1964, it was among the first to cease locking up at night to stop students staying out late. No gowns are worn at formal halls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Anne's College, Oxford</span> College of Oxford University, England

St Anne's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. It has some 450 undergraduate and 200 graduate students and retains an original aim of allowing women of any financial background to study at Oxford. It still has a student base with a higher than average proportion of female students. The college stands between Woodstock and Banbury roads, next to the University Parks. In April 2017, Helen King, a retired Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner, took over as Principal from Tim Gardam. Former members include Danny Alexander, Edwina Currie, Ruth Deech, Helen Fielding, William MacAskill, Amanda Pritchard, Simon Rattle, Tina Brown, Mr Hudson and Victor Ubogu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Hugh's College, Oxford</span> College of the University of Oxford

St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a 14.5-acre (5.9-hectare) site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and accepted its first male students in its centenary year in 1986. Prominent alumni include Theresa May, Aung San Suu Kyi, Amal Clooney and Heather Hallett, Baroness Hallett. It enjoys a reputation as one of the most attractive colleges because of its extensive gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thorold Rogers</span>

James Edwin Thorold Rogers, known as Thorold Rogers, was an English economist, historian and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 to 1886. He deployed historical and statistical methods to analyse some of the key economic and social questions in Victorian England. As an advocate of free trade and social justice, he distinguished himself from some others within the English Historical School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Paley Marshall</span> British economist (1850–1944)

Mary Marshall was an economist who in 1874 had been one of the first women to take the Tripos examination at Cambridge University – although, as a woman, she had been excluded from receiving a degree. She was one of a group of five women who were the first to be admitted to study at Newnham College, the second women's college to be founded at the University.

An exhibition is a type of historical financial scholarship or bursary awarded in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonard James Rogers</span> British mathematician (1862-1933)

Leonard James Rogers FRS was a British mathematician who was the first to discover the Rogers–Ramanujan identity and Hölder's inequality, and who introduced Rogers polynomials. The Rogers–Szegő polynomials are named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Penrose</span> British academic & college principal

Dame Emily Penrose, was an ancient historian and principal of three early women's university colleges in the United Kingdom: Bedford College from 1893 until 1898, Royal Holloway College from 1898 until 1907, and Somerville College, Oxford University from 1907 until 1926. She was the first woman to achieve First Class honours in Classics at Oxford University, and was instrumental in securing the admission of women as full members of the university in 1920. She became Oxford's first Dame in 1927.

Clara Ann Pater was an English scholar, a tutor, and a pioneer and early reformer of women's education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Annie Whiteley</span> English chemist

Martha Annie Whiteley, was an English chemist and mathematician. She was instrumental in advocating for women's entry into the Chemical Society, and was best known for her dedication to advancing women's equality in the field of chemistry. She is identified as one of the Royal Society of Chemistry's 175 Faces of Chemistry.

Cecilia Mary Ady was an English writer, academic and historian. She worked at the University of Oxford, where she became known as an authority on the Italian Renaissance. She came to wider public attention after she was dismissed by a former friend from her college, and her colleagues supported her reinstatement.

Margaret Hubbard was an Australian-born British classical scholar specialising in philology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Burrows</span> British academic administrator

Christine Mary Elizabeth Burrows was a British academic administrator who the second Principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford, from 1910 to 1919 and the second Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford, from 1921 to 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vera Anstey</span> British economist (1889–1976)

Vera Anstey was a British economist and noted expert on the economy of India. Anstey is most closely associated with the London School of Economics, where she served as a lecturer and chaired the admissions committee, and with the wider University of London, where she served as dean of the faculty of economics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Mordan</span> British suffragist and benefactor

Clara Evelyn Mordan was a British suffragist and benefactor to the Women's Social and Political Union and St Hugh's College, Oxford. Tuberculosis obliged her to fight for women's rights by proxy. She hoped that her "last bed will be a coffin some woman has earned her living by making".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Byron Green</span> British promoter of womens education (1842-1929)

Charlotte Byron Green born Charlotte Byron Symonds was a British promoter of women's education. She supported Somerville College from its foundation.

The Association for the Education of Women or Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women in Oxford (AEW) was formed in 1878 to promote the education of women at the University of Oxford. It provided lectures and tutorials for students at the four women's halls in Oxford, as well as for female students living at home or in lodgings and was dissolved in 1920 when women were admitted as members of the university.

Cyril Bailey, CBE, FBA was an English classicist. He was a fellow and tutor at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1902 to 1939.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First women admitted to degrees at the University of Oxford</span>

In 1920, the University of Oxford admitted women to degrees for the first time during the Michaelmas term. The conferrals took place at the Sheldonian Theatre on 14 October, 26 October, 29 October, 30 October and 13 November. That same year, on 7 October, women also became eligible for admission as full members of the university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Coate</span> English historian (1886 – 1972)

Mary Coate was an English historian of the seventeenth century who contributed to widening participation at Oxford, where she taught for almost thirty years.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Howarth, Janet (2004). "Rogers, Annie Mary Anne Henley (1856–1937)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/35810 .
  2. 1 2 3 4 Annie Rogers. Retrieved 13 November 2019
  3. ↑ W. A. S. Hewins, ‘Rogers, James Edwin Thorold (1823–1890)’, rev. Alon Kadish, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 13 Oct 2016
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Brittain, Vera (1960). The Women at Oxford. London: George G. Harrap & Co. ltd.
  5. ↑ "Exhibition Label 2009: Photograph of Annie Rogers & Mary Jackson as Queen Eleanor and the Fair Rosamund, 1863". Mhs.ox.ac.uk. History of Science Museum. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  6. ↑ Frances Lannon (30 October 2008). "Her Oxford". Times Higher Education.
  7. ↑ Handbook to the University of Oxford. University of Oxford. 1965. p. 43.
  8. ↑ History, Oxford High School, Retrieved 13 November 2019
  9. ↑ Deborah Quare, ‘Mordan, Clara Evelyn (1844–1915)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 19 Nov 2017
  10. ↑ "St Anne's College". british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  11. ↑ Reeves, Marjorie (1979). St Anne's College Oxford - An Informal History. St. Anne's College. pp. 28–9.
  12. ↑ Oxford History: Inscriptions
  13. ↑ Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board
  14. ↑ "Two Oxford buildings now carry memorials to leading women". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.