Beatrice May Baker (4 May 1876 – 28 September 1973), known as BMB, was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

headmistress and internationalist who developed Badminton School into a

progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...

school.

Life

Baker was born in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

in 1876. She and her three elder siblings attended the private Hereford High School. In 1896 she went to

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

for one year and she became a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

. She had won a three-year scholarship to complete her education but she left after a year. She did some teaching in London before joining the Cardiff Intermediary School for Girls in 1902. The school was developing new ideas and the head

Mary Collin Mary Collin (1 April 1860 – 22 July 1955) was an English teacher and campaigner for women's suffrage during the early part of the 20th century. Collin was the Chair of the Cardiff and District Women's Suffrage Society. Life Mary Collin was ...

and her deputy, Marion Layton, like Baker had degrees. Baker would later follow Collin's style of being strict but open to new ideas. At the school Baker met her life partner Lucy Jane Rendall. A school which was known as Miss Bartlett's School for Young Ladies in 1898 was based at Badminton House in Clifton in Bristol. In 1911 it took Baker on trial and she was soon in charge of the school. She and Rendall transformed the school and by the end of the first world war the majority of the school's eight staff had degrees. In 1924 the school moved to its present site in Westbury-on-Trym. Baker, known as BMB, was fundamental in shaping Badminton's ethos and had a deep personal influence on individual pupils. She encouraged the girls to be aware of world affairs and internationalism. A pioneer in many educational fields, she established Badminton as a much-admired progressive school. She encourage her students to develop a freedom of expression and encouraged a questioning approach to their learning: "in chapel 'Jesus often had to share the stage with Lenin'". In 1931 the school became a public school and unlike the nationalist leanings of its competitors the school has devoted to internationalism.

Death and legacy

Baker died in retirement in

Nailsea Nailsea is a town in Somerset, England, southwest of Bristol, and northeast of Weston-super-Mare. The nearest village is Backwell, which lies south of Nailsea on the opposite side of the Bristol to Exeter railway line. Nailsea had a populatio ...

in Somerset. By the late 1960s, the progressive aspects of Badminton school were said to have but vanished in 1971 and it had become a standard independent academic school.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Beatrice May 1876 births 1973 deaths People from Hereford Heads of schools in England Schoolteachers from Herefordshire