Dorothea Beale

Dorothea Beale, the daughter of Miles Beale and Dorothea Complin, was born in London in 1831. Miles Beale, a surgeon, employed a governess for Dorothea and her ten brothers and sisters. At sixteen Dorothea was sent to a school in Paris for a year.

Dorothea Beale became a student at Queen's College for Women when it first opened in 1848. Dorothea did so well that when she finished her studies they appointed her as their first woman mathematics tutor. However, Dorothea gradually became dissatisfied with the college and in 1856 became Head Teacher at Casterton School. Attempts to make changes to the way the school was organised ended in failure and she left within a year of being appointed.

For the next twelve months she concentrated on writing a Textbook of General History. This became a popular book with teachers and helped her to be appointed as Head Teacher of Cheltenham Ladies College. At the time the school had only a moderate reputation but under Beale's leadership it became one of the most highly regarded schools in the country. The traditional education of girls had emphasised the development of accomplishments such as music and drawing. Dorothea Beale, however, was determined to provide a much more academic education.

Dorothea Beale used her success at Cheltenham Ladies College to demonstrate what a good school could achieve. Dorothea Beale was also involved in trying to improve the national standard of education and played a prominent role in the Head Mistresses' Association and The Teachers' Guild.

In 1865 Dorothea Beale joined with Emily Davies and Elizabeth Garrett and eight other women to form a discussion group called the Kensington Society. In 1867 the group drafted a petition asking Parliament to grant women the vote. One of their supporters, John Stuart Mill, added an amendment to the 1867 Reform Act that would give women the same political rights as men. However, the amendment was defeated by 196 votes to 73.

Members of the Kensington Society were very disappointed when they heard the news and decided to form the London Society for Women's Suffrage. Soon afterwards similar societies were formed in other large towns in Britain. Dorothea Beale eventually became vice-president of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage.

In 1892 Dorothea Beale purchased Cowley House in Oxford for £5,000. The following year, the building was opened as St. Hilda's College, Oxford. In 1897 St. Hilda's was accepted by the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women as a high standard college for women.

Dorothea Beale wrote several books about education including Work and Play in Girls' Schools (1898). Dorothea Beale continued as the principal of Cheltenham Ladies College until her death in 1906.

Biographical Links

Emily Davies
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Source Database

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Internet Links

St. Hilda's College Archive
http://units.ox.ac.uk/colleges/st-hildas/archive.html

Further Reading

Elizabeth Raikes, Dorothea Beale of Cheltenham, Constable (1908)
Elizabeth Shillitoe, Dorothea Beale, Macmillan (1920)
Marie Roberts (ed.), The Educators, Routledge (1995)
Josephine Kamm, How Different From Us, Bodley Head (1958)

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