Changing Women's Lives

Alison Wilson

Description

Rosemary Murray (1913-2004) was the eldest of six children in a happy, talented and energetic family whose deeply-engrained attitude of service to the community she inherited. She studied chemistry at Oxford, becoming one of the first women at LMH to achieve a DPhil. in science, and began an academic career as a lecturer at Royal Holloway College. The charmed world of Rosemary's childhood and student days vanished abruptly with the outbreak of war. Enlisting in the WRNS as a rating, she served from 1942- 46, attaining the rank of Chief Officer. Post-war she was head-hunted by Cambridge University as Demonstrator in Chemistry combined with a Lectureship at Girton College. Here she became interested in women's education, witnessing the success of the long battle to allow women to take degrees and becoming a committee member of the Third Foundation Association, a movement to set up a third women's college. Eventually, when New Hall was started, she became its first Tutor-in-Charge, and later, President. She went on to become the first woman Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique
• Inglaterra
• University
• England

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 11 juin 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781910065341
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Title page
Changing Women’s Lives
a biography of Dame Rosemary Murray
Alison Wilson





Publisher information
Text Copyright © 2014 Alison Wilson
Images Copyright © 2014 as separately acknowledged
2014 digital version by Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
First published in 2014 by
Unicorn Press
66 Charlotte Street
London W1T 4QE
www.unicornpress.org
Designed by Camilla Fellas
Printed and bound in Great Britain



Frontispiece


Portrait of Dame Rosemary Murray by Patrick Phillips.



W.W. Spooner


William Wycliffe Spooner, M.A., M.I.C.E. (1882-1967)
The W.W. Spooner Charitable Trust is delighted to support this biography in celebration of the life of Dame Rosemary Murray, much loved and admired niece of William Wycliffe Spooner, M.A., M.I. C. E. (1882-1967)



Forward by HRH Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh


HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, OM, GBE.





Dedication
To my granddaughters, Hannah and Rebecca,
whose opportunities in life have been enlarged
thanks to pioneering women like Rosemary Murray



Author’s preface
The genesis of this book can be traced to a letter from Frances Crombie to Anne Lonsdale, then President of New Hall, in 2003. ‘Do you think there is a possibility that someone, past or present, from New Hall might want to write a memoir of your first President, my sister Rosemary? ... now would be the time for someone ... to come and talk with her of her past life.’ As it happened, the College Library had just started an oral history archive, so a small team recorded several hours of conversation with Dame Rosemary at her home in Oxford, to her obvious enjoyment. After that I began visiting her occasionally, but I was heavily involved with my work as Fellow Librarian and quite expected someone else to take up the challenge of the book. Instead, to celebrate the 50 th anniversary of New Hall we turned some of our recordings into a film, which could not help being a celebration of Dame Rosemary too, as her life was so bound up with the development of the College.
Later, I wrote an article for the College magazine to mark Rosemary’s 90 th birthday, and when she died a year later I contributed a memorial and was asked to write an obituary for The Independent . Frances told me that the family had liked it best of the many tributes. In her will, Rosemary left New Hall first choice from her substantial book collection, and on a mission to make the selection I discovered that Frances and I had been thinking along the same lines: that I might write the biography. So the decision was quickly and informally made there and then. From that point on she and her husband, Ian, both in their nineties, gave me unstinting help, donating papers to the College archive and lending me Rosemary’s precious diaries and journals and the enormous Murray family tree that Rosemary had drawn up. They invited me to visit them, and we chatted about Rosemary’s life and looked at photograph albums. These visits were always accompanied by a delicious lunch prepared by Frances, and ended with a big hug. It was a great sadness when, in 2008, Frances had a severe stroke and was moved permanently to a nursing home where she died in 2013. Ian had predeceased her in 2010. Since then their daughter Marion has welcomed me to the house, done her best to answer my questions, and lent me a wonderful cache of hundreds of letters to and from Rosemary, without which this book would be much the poorer. Rosemary’s brother, Richard Murray, and niece, Clare Crombie, also kindly contributed memories.
It was not possible to start on the biography in earnest until I retired as Librarian in 2010, but meanwhile I collected information, talking to alumnae, Fellows and staff of the College and interviewing founders and friends who had played an important part in the establishment of New Hall. I would like to thank all of them for being so willing to contribute their memories and opinions, especially those who agreed to be recorded, notably past and present Fellows Zara Steiner, Penny Wilson, Joanna Womack, Liz Acton, Janet Moore, Ruth Lynden-Bell, Joan Hinde, Kate Pretty, Catherine Belsey and George Levack; and from the staff, Mary Boothman, stalwart maid-of-all-work, Tony Norman, first Head of Maintenance, and Sister Jenny Hall, the College Nurse. Sheila Motley, Rosemary’s secretary at New Hall and Mary Philpott, her cleaner, explained Rosemary’s daily routine. I have been enjoyed talking to many alumnae, including those from the Silver Street years: Annabel Rathbone, Jenny Moody, Angela Holder, Dinah Hutchinson, Elizabeth Waldram, Pat Houghton, Valerie Hess, Isabel Raphael, and Caro Barker-Bennett. From later years I am indebted to Caroline Postgate, Patricia Acres, Patricia Rogers, Ida Williamson, Gillian Martin, Patricia Williams, Rosemary Charles, Suzanne Irwin, Eleanor O’Gorman, and many more.
I was fortunate to be able to interview some of Rosemary’s colleagues before they passed away: Robin Hammond, who had such an important influence on the shaping of the College, Ian Nicol, Secretary-General to the Faculties, Richard Barlow-Poole her Esquire Bedell, Sarah Newman, Emeritus Fellow and first Librarian of New Hall, and Peter Laslett, historian, who remembered racy discussions in Trinity about the new women’s college. I am very pleased to have their words on record for future historians to consult in the College Archive.
Those who worked or advised the College on its buildings include John Honer, Frank Woods, Victor Bugg, Geoffrey Trickey, Richard Noble, and David Todd-Jones from Estates Management. They taught me a lot about construction and Rosemary’s involvement in the planning and building on the Huntingdon Road site. Horace Barlow told me about ‘The Orchard’, his mother’s home, and a visit he made to Cadlington. I am most grateful to Jeremy and Louise Sanders for introducing me to several Chemists who knew Rosemary: David Cohen and Cedric Hassall, and Ian Fleming, who gave me a particularly good overview of the Chemistry Department in the 1950s and 1960s. John Martin contributed a student’s perspective. Of the many people who have worked directly with Rosemary I would particularly like to thank Alan Clark and Geoffrey Skelsey of the Old Schools, who assisted her as Vice-Chancellor. Both have excellent and long memories. George Reid, Sir David Harrison, Christopher Johnson and Owen Chadwick also provided recollections of that period. Charmian Gladstone commented on the vicissitudes of schooldays at Downe House. Michael Fish gave me some insights into the WRNS when he came to the Library as a reader. Janet Harker, a friend of Rosemary at Girton, told me how they dashed to the coast to help flood victims. The Librarian of LMH remembered how Rosemary used to catch up on college news over lunch with her in hall after her move to Oxford. My friend Elke Pollard entertained Rosemary in her garden, drawing her out on the subject of being a Dame. We could see that Rosemary would have liked to climb up to the tree-house! In her last years Rosemary was greatly helped by Shirley Smith, a secretary and friend, whom I consulted by telephone. I met in person Tony Price, the Vicar of Old Marston, and read his blog about visiting her in hospital, which I feel encapsulates all Rosemary’s sterling Christian qualities. Ros Edwards, whose gift has transformed the College, told me about her first, and only, meeting with Rosemary since student days, when she talked to her about the re-naming.
I have been generously assisted by librarians and archivists while undertaking this research. Firstly I would like to thank the staff of the Rosemary Murray Library, Kirstie Preest, Jan Waller and Agnieska Ochal and most of all Joan Bullock-Anderson, who went out of her way to find material and check sources both at Murray Edwards and Girton Colleges. Kathy McVittie’s past voluntary work on indexing the oral history videos also proved very useful. Elsewhere in Cambridge I would like to thank the staff of the University Library Rare Books Reading Room; the Librarian of Girton College, Frances Gandy, and Archivists Kate Perry and Hannah Westall; and the Senior Tutor and Keeper of Archives at Homerton College, Peter Warner. I was ably guided to cuttings and microfilms at the Cambridgeshire Collection in the central library and greatly helped by Mike Petty, its former Librarian, in obtaining photographs. In Oxford I visited the archives of New College and was advised by their Archivist, Jennifer Thorp, on Warden Spooner’s Diary, and Lady Margaret Hall Library where the Librarian, Roberta Staples, and Archivist, Oliver Mahony, produced valuable references and photographs. I visited Downe House School and was greeted with enthusiasm by Kate Finlay and the Archivist, Jennifer Kingsland, who also supplied images. I am obliged to all those who have given me permission to publish quotations and illustrations.
A number of friends read and commented on chapters of the book, notably David Adamson, Richard Buxton, Kathleen Cann and Jennifer Barnes. Christine Penney read it all in first draft as it came off the computer, encouraging me to keep going. Heather Glen, Penny Wilson, Rita McWilliams Tullberg and Dame Barbara Stocking read a near-final draft. I am immensely grateful to all of them for their suggestions and improvements.
I am especially indebted to