Helen Gladstone (28 August 1849 – 19 August 1925) was a British educationist, vice-principal at
Newnham College
Newnham College is a women's 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 Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millice ...
in Cambridge, and co-founder of the
Women's University Settlement
Blackfriars Settlement charitable organization in the UK established to improve the well-being of disadvantaged people. It was originally established as the Women's University Settlement in 1887, and focused especially on the needs of women and c ...
.
Life
Gladstone was born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. Helen came to notice when her sister Mary proposed that she should become one of the first students to study at
Newnham College
Newnham College is a women's 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 Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millice ...
in Cambridge. In 1877, aged 28 Helen attended Newnham College as one of 25 students. She decided to not take the
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 ...
but she did pass the higher examination.
[
After completing her course, Gladstone became the assistant to the first principal Anne Clough, an early English Suffragist.][ Gladstone later became vice principal of Newnham, after Nora Sidgwick in 1892.][ At Newnham Helen was known for her sweetness of disposition and good sense, as well as telling anecdotes that frequently mentioned her father.]
In 1886, Gladstone turned down the chance to be the first principal of 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 ...
but she suspected that they just wanted "a Gladstone."[ Helen Gladstone]
Biographies, Newnham College, retrieved 10 March 2017 During the 1890s, Helen and her sisters took turns as the ‘daughter at home’ to take care of their aging and increasingy frail parents, and in 1896, she regretfully decided to step down from her post at Newnham and move back to the family home for the reminder of her parents' lives. Both of her parents had died by 1900.
Inspired by Henrietta Barnett
Dame Henrietta Octavia Weston Barnett, DBE (''née'' Rowland; 4 May 1851 – 10 June 1936) was an English social reformer, educationist, and author. She and her husband, Samuel Augustus Barnett, founded the first "University Settlement" at To ...
and the work of Toynbee Hall (founded in 1884), in 1887 a number of women from Girton and Newnham Colleges at Cambridge University, Lady Margaret and Somerville Colleges at Oxford University and Bedford and Royal Holloway Universities, including Helen Gladstone, Octavia Hill, and Alice Gruner, co-founded the Women's University Settlement
Blackfriars Settlement charitable organization in the UK established to improve the well-being of disadvantaged people. It was originally established as the Women's University Settlement in 1887, and focused especially on the needs of women and c ...
. The Women's University Settlement
Blackfriars Settlement charitable organization in the UK established to improve the well-being of disadvantaged people. It was originally established as the Women's University Settlement in 1887, and focused especially on the needs of women and c ...
was founded with the aim to "promote the welfare of the poorer districts of London, more especially of the women and children, by devising and advancing schemes which tend to elevate them, and by giving them additional opportunities in education and recreation". Formed as part of the Settlement Movement
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...
, a social reform movement 'based on the idea that middle class people (settlers) would live among the working poor as moral and intellectual guiding exemplars, rather than provide mere financial support through charity work', women from London colleges were invited to live at the Settlement
Settlement may refer to:
*Human settlement, a community where people live
*Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building
* Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction
*Settlement (fin ...
at 44 Nelson Square, in Southwark.
In 1901 Helen Gladstone became the second Warden of the Blackfriars Settlement, succeeding Margaret Sewell.[Blackfriars Settlement](_blank)
History, Retrieved 15 May 2017 While dedicated to the Settlement's objectives, She found the organisational side of the Warden's position far less congenial, and stood down after five years.
In 1922 her former lady's maid, Auguste Schlüter, who had kept contact with the Gladstone family published her memoirs.[K. D. Reynolds, ‘Schlüter, Auguste (1849–1917)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200]
accessed 14 March 2017
/ref>
Gladstone died in Hawarden
Hawarden (; cy, Penarlâg) is a village, community and electoral ward in Flintshire, Wales. It is part of the Deeside conurbation on the Wales-England border and is home to Hawarden Castle. In the 2011 census the ward of the same name had ...
in 1925.[Sheila Fletcher, â]
Gladstone, Helen (1849–1925)
€™, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online ed., May 2006, accessed 10 March 2017
Family
Helen Gladstone was the sixth of eight children of Catherine Gladstone
Catherine Gladstone (; 6 January 1812 – 14 June 1900) was the wife of British statesman William Ewart Gladstone for 59 years, from 1839 until his death in 1898.
Early life and family
Glynne was the daughter of Sir Stephen Glynne, 8th Baro ...
(nee Glynne) and William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
, the Liberal politician and four time British prime minister.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gladstone, Helen
1849 births
1925 deaths
Academics from London
Women academic administrators
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
British academic administrators