Alice Gruner (1846-1929) was a lecturer, social worker, and a principal founder of the Women's University Settlement, Southwark (today

Blackfriars Settlement Blackfriars Settlement charitable organization in the UK established to improve the well-being of disadvantaged people. It was originally established as the Women's University Settlement in 1887, and focused especially on the needs of women and c ...

Life and work

Alice Gruner was born in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

in 1846, moving to England with her sister, Joan, at the age of 18. She became a naturalised British subject in 1896. Between 1883-1886 she was a student at

Newnham College, Cambridge 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 Millicen ...

. Gruner tutored Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones for the

Girton College Girton College is one of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1 ...

entrance exams, on the recommendation of

Emily Davies Sarah Emily Davies (22 April 1830 – 13 July 1921) was an English feminist and suffragist, and a pioneering campaigner for women's rights to university access. She is remembered above all as a co-founder and an early Mistress of Girton Coll ...

. Joan Gruner, Alice's sister, had been a student at Girton 1874-1877, as well as at Trinity College, Dublin, and was a school principal. In 1887, Gruner was among the founders of the Women's University Settlement, Southwark. Alongside Gruner and other Cambridge University graduates, the original committee included educationist

Helen Gladstone Helen Gladstone (28 August 1849 – 19 August 1925) was a British educationist, vice-principal at Newnham College in Cambridge, and co-founder of the Women's University Settlement. Life Gladstone was born in London. Helen came to notice when her s ...

and social reformer Octavia Hill. Following the example of the growing University Settlement movement, their aim was to "promote the welfare of the poorer districts of London, more especially of the women and children, by devising and advancing schemes which tend to elevate them, and by giving them additional opportunities in education and recreation". For twenty years, Gruner was also Secretary to the Association of University Women Teachers, founded to protect the interests and improve the position of women teachers at the university level. Here, her 'experience and untiring devotion to the work made her a most valuable adviser both to those who offered and those who were seeking educational posts.' Her obituary in

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

noted that in this role 'she helped to raise the status of women teachers, and the standard of education in schools'. Gruner also worked for the cause of women's suffrage. Alice Gruner died on 29 December 1929.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gruner, Alice 1846 births 1929 deaths Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge British social workers Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Estonian emigrants to England English suffragists English women educators