Mary Collin (1 April 1860 – 22 July 1955) was an English teacher and campaigner for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

during the early part of the 20th century. Collin was the Chair of the Cardiff and District Women's Suffrage Society.

Life

Mary Collin was born in

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 ...

and educated at Notting Hill High School for Girls,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography later graduating from

Bedford College, London file:Bedford College in York place - photographer is unknown but guess 1908.png, Bedford College was in York Place after 1874 Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first higher education college for education of women, women in th ...

, in French and German. Having spent seven years as Second Mistress at

Nottingham High School for Girls Nottingham Girls' High School is an independent selective day school for girls aged 4–18, situated just north of Nottingham city centre. The school was founded in 1875 and forms part of the Girls' Day School Trust. History Nottingham Girls' ...

, she was appointed head of Cardiff Intermediate School for Girls (later Cardiff High School for Girls) in 1895, when the school first opened; she retained the post until 1924. She gathered well qualified teachers to her school, including Beatrice May Baker, who copied her approach when leading

Badminton School Badminton School is an independent, boarding and day school for girls aged 3 to 18 years situated in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, England. Named after Badminton House in Clifton, Bristol, where it was founded, the school has been located at its ...

to be more progressive. Collin's position in the community enabled her to command respect as a leader of the women's suffrage movement. As a head teacher, she supported the teaching of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and science to girls, and advocated that school inspectors should themselves have a teaching qualification. A portrait of Miss Collin, by an unknown artist, has been rediscovered at

St Fagans National Museum of History St Fagans National Museum of History ( ; cy, Sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru, links=no), commonly referred to as St Fagans after the village where it is located, is an open-air museum in Cardiff chronicling the historical lifestyle, cultur ...

and put on display.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collin, Mary 1860 births 1955 deaths Schoolteachers from Nottinghamshire English suffragists People educated at Notting Hill & Ealing High School