Caroline "Cara" Eleanor Gascoigne (3 July 1888 – 1984) was a British physical educator. From 1912 to 1921, she coached at Sweet Briar College, as director of physical training; under her leadership, Sweet Briar students played in the first women's intercollegiate hockey, basketball, and lacrosse games ever held in Virginia. She was inducted into the Sweet Briar College Athletics Hall of Fame posthumously, in 2007.

Early life

Gascoigne was born in Devon, the daughter of William Birch Gascoigne and Caroline Malet Veale Gascoigne. Her father was a clergyman; her mother was born to English parents in South Africa. Cara Gascoigne attended Queen Anne's School, Caversham in 1907, and graduated from the Bergman-Österberg Physical Training College in

Dartford, Kent Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in E ...

, where she was a classmate of fellow lacrosse coach Rosabelle Sinclair.

Career

Gascoigne was director of physical training at Sweet Briar College from 1912 to 1923, except while she was serving as a W.A.A.C. during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. During and after the war, she worked with convalescent soldiers in England. During her time at the college, she started one of the first women's lacrosse clubs in the United States. She also played violin in Sweet Briar's orchestra, appeared in campus dramatics, and taught lacrosse at a girls' summer camp in

Hancock, New Hampshire Hancock is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,731 at the 2020 census. Hancock is home to the Welch Family Farm Forest. The main village of the town, where 213 people resided at the 2020 census, is de ...

. She coached her students in Virginia's first women's intercollegiate sports events, in field hockey and basketball.Hall of Fame: Cara Gascoigne
Sweet Briar College Athletics. After 1923, she returned to England and taught at her ''alma mater'' Queen Anne's, where she continued to coach women's lacrosse and play violin "in several orchestras", and in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

rode her bicycle regularly into her eighties.

Personal life

Gascoigne died in 1984, in her nineties, in England. She was inducted into the Sweet Briar College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007. She is also in the Bergman Österberg Union Hall of Fame.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gascoigne, Cara 1888 births 1984 deaths People from Devon British educators Sweet Briar College faculty Lacrosse coaches People educated at Queen Anne's School