Alice Gardner (26 April 1854 – 11 November 1927) was an English historian. Her publications included a history of

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millice ...

, Cambridge.

Life

Gardner was born in Hackney, London, in 1854. She was one of six children and two her brother Ernest Arthur Gardner and

Percy Gardner Percy Gardner, (24 November 184617 July 1937) was an English classical archaeologist and numismatist. He was Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge from 1879 to 1887. He was Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and ...

were noted archaeologists. At first she was educated at home but she then went to a school at

Laleham Laleham is a village on the River Thames, in the Borough of Spelthorne, about west of central London, England. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, it was transferred to Surrey in 1965. Laleham is downriver from Staines-upon-Thames a ...

created by Hannah Pipe in 1869. She went on to Newnham College in Cambridge in 1876. She was mentored by Mandell Creighton. In 1879 she came top of the history tripos with Sarah Marshall. The male students were all behind them.Gillian Sutherland, ‘Gardner, Alice (1854–1927)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 21 Feb 2017
/ref> She wrote and published a number of important books. The first was ''Synesius of Cyrene: Philosopher and Bishop'' which was her debut published by the SPCK in 1885. Ten years later she published ''Julian: Emperor and Philosopher''. ''Studies in John the Scot'' was published in 1900 and ''Theodore of Studium: his Life and Times'' in 1905 and ''The Lascarids of Nicaea: the Story of an Empire in Exile'' in 1912. After she left college she taught in Plymouth and Bedford College before she returned to lead her alma mater's history department until she first retired in 1914. World War One saw her at the Foreign Office before she took over Bristol University's history department in 1915 as their teaching staff had been drafted to war work. She wanted this university to aspire to Cambridge's older standards. In thanks she was awarded an MA degree in 1918 and she became a

reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

at Bristol in 1920. Cambridge was not yet authorised to award a woman a degree, but Newnham's Principal,

Anne Clough Anne Jemima Clough (20 January 182027 February 1892) was an early English suffragist and a promoter of higher education for women. She was the first principal of Newnham College. Life Clough was born at Liverpool, Lancashire, the daughter of c ...

, supported her research in Asia Minor and Bulgaria. Gardner was teaching in Bristol in 1921 when Newnham celebrated its fiftieth birthday. Gardner published ''A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge''. Gardner died in

Warneford Hospital The Warneford Hospital is a hospital providing mental health services at Headington in east Oxford, England. It is managed by the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital opened as the ''Oxford Lunatic Asylum'' in July 1826. It ...

in Oxford in 1927.

Works

*''Synesius of Cyrene: Philosopher and Bishop'', 1885, *''Julian: Emperor and Philosopher'', 1895 *''Studies in John the Scot'', 1900 *''Theodore of Studium: his Life and Times'', 1905 *''The Lascarids of Nicaea'', 1912 *''A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge'', 1921

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, Alice British historians British women historians Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge 1854 births 1927 deaths People from Hackney Central