Camilla Croudace (29 January 1844 – 3 April 1926) was a British supporter of education for women serving from 1881 to 1906 as Lady Resident at Queens College London.

Life

Croudace was born in

Homerton Homerton ( ) is an area in London, England, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bordered to the west by Hackney Central, to the north by Lower Clapton, in the east by Hackney Wick, Leyton and by South Hackney to the south. In 2019, it had ...

in 1844 to Thomas and Ann Croudace. Her mother was Ann Hester "Camilla" Vignoles and her maternal grandfather was the leading civil engineer

Charles Vignoles Charles Blacker Vignoles (31 May 1793 – 17 November 1875) was an influential British railway engineer, and eponym of the Vignoles rail. Early life He was born at Woodbrook, County Wexford, Ireland in May 1793 the son of Capt. Ch ...

who built huge bridges. Her mother (born 1818) was christened Ann Hester because her mother was too ill to advise and her father was away, but she too was called "Camilla". Croudace was educated in London where she went to secondary school at Queens College London where she greatly admired the school's founder

F. D. Maurice John Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872), known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War, interest in Maurice has expanded."Frede ...

. Other notable teachers there were

Dorothea Beale Dorothea Beale LL.D. (21 March 1831 – 9 November 1906) was a suffragist, educational reformer and author. As Principal of Cheltenham Ladies' College, she became the founder of St Hilda's College, Oxford. Early and family life Dorothea Beale w ...

, R. C. Trench and

E. H. Plumptre Edward Hayes Plumptre (6 August 1821 – 1 February 1891) was an English Anglicanism#Anglican divines, divine and scholar born in London. Life He was born on 6 August 1821, being the son of Edward Hallows Plumptre, a London solicitor. Charles J ...

. After she left the school she worked as a governess, before she was invited back to become the "Lady Resident". It was not her role to teach but to look after the girls and to ensure discipline and the school's ethos was upheld. Croudace would invite her favourite pupils to tea. Katherine Mansfield was one of her student admirers and one of her most brilliant students was the traveller Gertrude Bell. Croudace died in

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

and was buried in St Peters churchyard in Linchmere.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Croudace, Camilla 1844 births 1926 deaths People from the London Borough of Hackney English governesses