Wordsworth, Elizabeth (1840–1932)
Wordsworth, Elizabeth (1840–1932)
British leader in women's education at Oxford University. Name variations: (pseudonym) Grant Lloyd. Born on June 22, 1840, at Harrow-on-the-Hill, England; died on November 30, 1932, in Oxford; daughter of Christopher Wordsworth (the bishop of Lincoln) and Susanna (Hatley) Wordsworth; sister of John Wordsworth (the bishop of Salisbury); greatniece of poet William Wordsworth and diarist Dorothy Wordsworth (1771–1855).
Was first principal of Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford University; opened St. Hugh's Hall (later St. Hugh's College) at Oxford, and encouraged the opening of Lady Margaret Hall Settlement in Lambeth; made a Dame of the British Empire (1928).
Elizabeth Wordsworth was born in 1840 into a prosperous family of great renown in English society. Her father Christopher Wordsworth was later bishop of Lincoln; her brother John Wordsworth was later bishop of Salisbury, and she was the great-niece of poet William Wordsworth and his sister, diarist Dorothy Wordsworth . Although Elizabeth spent a year at a boarding school in Brighton, she received most of her education under the guidance of her father and several governesses who instructed her in classics, history, English, languages, music, and painting. Her family connections and impressive intellect gave her entrance to social circles particularly devoted to scholarship, art, and church and social improvement.
In 1878, Wordsworth accepted an appointment as the first principal of Oxford University's Lady Margaret Hall. During her distinguished 30-year career as an administrator, she expanded the student body, hired tutors, added new buildings, and began plans for the construction of both a hall and a library. More important, she was an advocate of women's entrance to Oxford University, and to this end opened St. Hugh's Hall (later St. Hugh's College) in 1886 and encouraged the establishment of the Lady Margaret Hall Settlement in Lambeth in 1897.
Wordsworth retired from administrative work in 1909, but was no less active in retirement. She had previously published two novels under the pseudonym Grant Lloyd and returned to writing in her retirement. She published Glimpses of the Past (1912), Essays Old and New (1919), and Poems and Plays (1931). Her most notable literary work was the biography of her father, published in 1888. For her efforts on behalf of education, she received several honorary degrees and was named a Dame of the British Empire in 1928. She died on November 30, 1932, in Oxford, where she had made her home since 1899.
sources:
The Concise Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
The Dictionary of National Biography, 1931–1940. Ed. by L.G. Wickham Legg. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949.