Dame Emmeline Mary Tanner,
DBE (28 December 1876 – 7 January 1955) was a British headmistress and educational reformer. She led several schools including
Roedean. She was appointed a
dame for her contribution to the
1944 Education Act.
Life
Tanner was born in 1876 in
Bath. She was one of seven children. Her younger sister, Beatrice Tanner, would be a notable nurse gaining a
Royal Red Cross
The Royal Red Cross (RRC) is a military decoration awarded in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth for exceptional services in military nursing.
Foundation
The award was established on 27 April 1883 by Queen Victoria, with a single class of Mem ...
medal in 1919.
Her parents, Samuel and Janette Jane ( Fry) Tanner, were keen for their children to receive an education but they could not fund advanced education. Her father was a coal merchant and a
Justice of the Peace.
[
She became a student teacher aged thirteen and spent her time teaching in private schools until she was employed by the ''Ladies' College, Halifax'' where she was trained. Tanner arranged her own education and submitted herself to the University of London where as an external candidate she obtained a first class history degree in 1904. The following year she was working at ]Sherborne School for Girls
Sherborne Girls, formally known as Sherborne School for Girls, is an independent day and boarding school for girls, located in Sherborne, North Dorset, England. There were 485 pupils attending in 2019–2020, with over 90 per cent of them livin ...
.[
In 1908 she published a textbook on European history titled ''The Renaissance and the Reformation: A Textbook of European History 1494-1610''.
]Nuneaton High School for Girls
Etone College (formerly Etone Community School and Technology College) is a secondary academy school in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. It was founded in 1910 as the Nuneaton High School for Girls. It is a mixed school of non-denominational ...
was founded in 1910 with the strong support of Warwickshire's Director of Education Bolton King. Tanner was the founding head. She enjoyed the support of Bolton King throughout her career and she joined Nuneaton's Education committee. She led the school in Nuneaton for about a decade and then she moved to Bedford High School where she again joined the education committee in addition to bringing reform to the school.
Tanner was poached from Bedford to lead Roedean School
Roedean School is an independent day and boarding school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sus ...
in 1924 by Penelope Lawrence, one of Roedean's founders. She joined the education committee in Brighton. She had already been one of the four women on the consultative committee of the Board of Education and as head of Roedean she was asked to serve on that committee for another six years.[
Tanner was Chair of the Association of Headmistresses and later their President from 1947 to 1939.
]
Damehood
She was made a dame for her contributions to drafting the 1944 Education Act as she had sat for two years on the Fleming committee which looked at public schools.[ The committee recommended that "opportunities of education in the public schools should be made available to boys and girls ... irrespective of the income of their parents."
]
Death
Tanner died in Marlborough
Marlborough may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
** Marlborough College, public school
* Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England
* The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England
Austral ...
in 1955, aged 78.
In 1995, Susan Major wrote ''Doors of Possibility: The Life of Dame Emmeline Tanner, 1876-1955'', describing Tanner as a person who had emerged from a start in life without money or connections and had risen to the top assisting with the great changes that happened in education over her lifetime.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanner, Emmeline
1876 births
1955 deaths
People from Bath, Somerset
Heads of schools in England
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire