Geraldine Emma May Jebb

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(1886 – 28 December 1959), known as Gem Jebb, was the daughter of Heneage Horsley Jebb and Geraldine Croker Russell. The Jebbs were a distinguished Irish family, prominent in both the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

and the legal profession: her paternal grandparents were Robert Jebb QC and Harriet Horsley, a descendant of Bishop

Samuel Horsley Samuel Horsley (15 September 1733 – 4 October 1806) was a British churchman, bishop of Rochester from 1793. He was also well versed in physics and mathematics, on which he wrote a number of papers and thus was elected a Fellow of the Royal So ...

. Her mother was a daughter of John Russell,

Archdeacon of Clogher The Archdeacon of Clogher is a senior ecclesiastical officer within the Anglican Diocese of Clogher. The Archdeacon is responsible for the disciplinary supervision of the clergy within the diocese. The archdeaconry can trace its history back to ...

and his wife Frances Story. She was the Principal of Bedford College,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, from 1930 to 1951, the first higher education women's college in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

.Royal Holloway College archives accessed 30 December 2011
/ref> She was unmarried.

Education

Jebb was educated at

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 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 Sid ...

taking the

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

Tripos At the University of Cambridge, a Tripos (, plural 'Triposes') is any of the examinations that qualify an undergraduate for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. For example, an undergraduate studying mathe ...

although women were not awarded degrees at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

until 1948.

Career

Jebb worked in the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

from 1913 to 1917 in the Department of the

Ministry of Labour The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...

Academia

Jebb then became Director of Studies and Lecturer on Economics at Newnham from 1917 to 1919 and from 1919 to 1929 a lecturer on Economics at Armstrong College, now

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

but then part of the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

. In 1930 she was appointed Principal of Bedford College and retired in 1951. During this period, Jebb represented the college on the Management Committee for the

Florence Nightingale Foundation The Florence Nightingale Foundation (FNF) is a charity organisation in the United Kingdom that provides scholarships to nurses, midwives, and other health professionals while serving as a living memorial of the work of Florence Nightingale. His ...

(FNF), a charity organisation that provides scholarships to health professionals in the UK. She was appointed

in 1951.

Relations

Jebb's sister, Eglantyne Mary Jebb (1889–1978), was Principal of the Froebel Educational Institute (now

Froebel College Froebel College is one of the four constituent colleges of the University of Roehampton. History The college was founded as a women's teacher training college in 1892 by followers of Friedrich Fröbel Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froe ...

Roehampton University The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an e ...

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the U ...

, London (1932–55). Her cousin,

Eglantyne Jebb Eglantyne Jebb (25 August 1876 – 17 December 1928) was a British social reformer who founded the Save the Children organisation at the end of the First World War to relieve the effects of famine in Austria-Hungary and Germany. She drafted th ...

(1876–1928), founded the charity ''

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...

''.

References

External links

* List of Principals of Royal Holloway, University of London
The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb with family tree of the Jebb family

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jebb, Geraldine Emma May 1886 births 1959 deaths Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People associated with Bedford College, London