Eminent Somervillians

Mary Ward was closely involved in the negotiations surrounding the foundation of Somerville Hall. She was the person who originally suggested that Somerville should be named for Scottish scientist Mary Somerville. The choice was deliberate: to keep the naming of the new establishment well away from the religious figures for whom other such halls and college had been named.

Ward was also a novelist, and her strong Victorian values made her work very popular (it was said that Julia Stephen recommended to her daughters Virginia (later Woolf) and Vanessa (later Bell) that they should take Mrs Ward as one of their role models of femininity. Her aim in ensuring that Somerville came into existence was what she called the ‘equalisation’ for women. She was Somerville Hall’s first secretary and her cousin was Emily Penrose, who would go on to become Somerville’s third Principal.

However, Ward was far from holding the suffragist sympathies shared by so many Somervillians at that time. She did not advocate ‘votes for women’, and in 1909, she wrote an article in the Times explaining that she felt legal, financial, military and international problems were ones that only men could solve. She went on to become the founding member of the Women’s Anti-Suffrage League and to create and edit The Anti-Suffrage Review.

Did you know? Mary Ward’s passion for educational work lives on today, with the London adult education centre, the Mary Ward Centre, named for her.

Janet Vaughan grew up in Bristol and came to Somerville in 1919 to study Medicine, graduating with a First (despite having, as she said herself, nothing more than ‘a little ladylike botany’ when she arrived).

Vaughan went on to train as a doctor at University College Hospital. Her medical work in London’s slums gave her a lifelong commitment to socialism and also inspired her to take up work as a research pathologist looking at blood disorders. As part of the UK’s preparations for the Second World War, Vaughan began to develop a system for separating, storing and moving blood, creating Britain’s first national blood banks (the modified milk bottle used to store blood became known as a ‘Janet Vaughan’). At the end of the War, Vaughan was asked to go to Belsen at the head of a Medical Research Council Team to carry out research into how those suffering from starvation could best be treated (‘I am here,’ she wrote, ‘trying to do science in hell’).

The first scientist to be Principal of Somerville, Vaughan was also, for a time, the only scientist to be a head of house in Oxford. By the time Vaughan retired as Principal, 40% of the college’s students were scientists. Throughout her tenure, she continue to work in the lab and write academic papers. She also served on the Royal Commission for Equal Pay and as a founder Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation. When asked once in a radio interview how she managed to fit so much into her life, Vaughan said simply, ‘I never played bridge’.

You can read an article about Janet Vaughan’s work for the prisoners of Belsen, written to commemorate the 75^thanniversary of the camp’s liberation, here.

Did you know? Janet Vaughan’s mother was a close friend of Virginia Woolf, and Woolf once described Janet Vaughan as ‘an attractive woman: competent, disinterested, taking blood tests all day to solve abstract problems’.

Shriti Vadera grew up in Uganda before her family fled to India and later to the UK. She came to Somerville in in 1981 to study PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics).

After graduation, Vadera worked for investment bank UBS Warburg for over 14 years. Her work included advising governments of developing countries. From 1999 to 2006, she was on the Council of Economic Advisers at the UK Treasury. In 2007, Vadera was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for International Development in Gordon Brown’s government. She was created a life peer in 2007 as Baroness Vadera of Holland Park. She moved from International Development to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) and in 2008 she also beame a Permanent Secretary in the Cabinet Office. From 2015 to 2020, Vadera was chairwoman of Santander, becoming the first woman to head a major British bank. In 2021, she was appointed Chair of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and is the first woman and the first person of colour to chair the RSC. Vadera is an Honorary Fellow of Somerville.

Did you know? In 2018, in a conversation at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Shriti Vadera said ‘I’m not a great fan of leaning in. You’ve got to own the talent you have… The single most important thing is to be comfortable with who you are and not have to be somebody else.’

Xand (Alexander) van Tulleken grew up in London and came to Somerville in 1996 to study Physiological Sciences. After qualifying as a doctor, he specialised in tropical medicine and as a junior doctor worked in Darfur during the genocide, sparking an interest in the interaction between politics and medicine. He has a diploma in Tropical Medicine, a diploma in International Humanitarian Assistance and a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard, where he was a Fulbright Scholar

Van Tulleken has worked most often with his twin brother Chris (who studied Medicine at St Peter’s College, Oxford), exploring human biology and putting theories about health and medicine to the test on shows including Operation Ouch!, Trust me, I’m a Doctor and The Twinstitute. Alongside his media appearances, he continues with medical research and teaching, holding an honorary fellowship at the Fordham Institute in New York. He is a contributing editor to the first edition of the Oxford Handbook of Humanitarian Medicine. Van Tulleken continues to practise medicine in conflict zones, and has worked as a patron of international medical charities including Doctors of the World UK and Doctors Medical Emergency Relief International.

Xand van Tulleken on Somerville ‘Oxford can be an intimidating place but Somerville – a former women’s college – is welcoming to absolutely everyone. If you’re thinking of applying, check it out. Amazing tutors and students.’ ‘Also: they produced TWO prime ministers, a Nobel prize winner, some of the most amazing women the world has seen in science and the humanities (and a Bafta nominated CBBC presenter!).’

Margaret Thatcher grew up in Lincolnshire and came to Somerville in 1943 to study Chemistry. After graduation, she worked briefly as a research chemist before training as a barrister. In 1959 she was elected MP for Finchley.

Thatcher became Secretary of State for Education and Science 1970-1974 under Edward Heath. The Conservatives were defeated in 1974 following which Thatcher replaced Heath as leader of the party. She became Prime Minister in 1979 when the Conservatives returned to power and she held office for three consecutive terms, resigning in 1990 following a leadership challenge by Michael Heseltine. A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher privatised state-owned industrites and utilities, reformed the trade unions, lowered taxes and reduced social welfare expenditure. Thatcher’s cuts to higher education led to her being the first Oxford-educated post-war prime minister who was not given an honorary doctorate by the University. Abroad, she cultivated relationships with the world’s leaders (with Ronald Reagan in the US in particular), resulting in an international profile and influence for the UK which has rarely been greater during peacetime. In 1992 took her seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.

The Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust (MTST) was set up at Somerville in 2013 and offers scholarships to foster academic excellence, supporting individuals to succeed and equipping them to excel in their chosen field.

Did you know? Thatcher remained in contact with Somerville and with her tutor (Nobel Prize-winner Dorothy Hodgkin). She reportedly said that she was prouder of becoming the first prime minister with a science degree than becoming the first female prime minister. In 1980, she sent an open letter to Somerville about her time at the college. ‘One last thought – or is it a feeling,’ she wrote.  ‘I loved those years, I really did.’

Enid Starkie was born in Dublin and educated by a series of governesses (of whom one was French, sparking Starkie’s profound love of France). Starkie was also a talented pianist, but her father discouraged her from taking up a career in music and, to please him, Starkie came to Somerville in 1916 to study Modern Languages.

After her studies, Starkie worked as an assistant lecturer at Exeter University, returning to Somerville in 1928 when she was appointed the Sarah Smithson Lecturer in French Literature. She was elected a fellow of the college in 1935 and in 1946 she was appointed Reader in French Literature at Oxford. Starkie wrote authoritative critical works on Baudelaire (1957), Rimbaud (1947) and Flaubert (1967) and her other work included studies on Verhaeren, Gide and Peter Borel. She was known for being warm, tough and intelligent, and she could also be eccentric and unpredictable (an article in Time magazine described her as ‘a brilliant Rimbaud scholar who pub-crawls about Oxford in bright red slacks and beret while smoking cigars’). Starkie received a Doctorat of the Sorbonne and the French Academy literary prize and in 1958 she was elected to the Légion d’Honneur. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967.

Did you know? Enid Starkie successfully campaigned for the Oxford Chair of Poetry to be held by poets rather than critics. It was also her campaigning which led to W.H. Auden’s election to the Chair in 1956.

Cornelia Sorabji came to Somerville in 1889 to study Law. She was the first woman admitted to read Law at Oxford University and the first Indian woman to study at any British university. As a child growing up in India, Sorabji found herself moved by the life stories of the women who lived behind the ‘curtain’ of Purdah, whose enforced seclusion, often compounded by illiteracy, made them easy victims of legal fraud. When her mother asked her ‘What are you going to do for India when you grow up?’, she decided that the most practical way to help was to learn the law.

Sorabji began by studying English Literature at a branch of Bombay University (where the male students often shut the doors of lecture halls in her face). Coming top in her examinations there meant that she automatically gained an English Government Scholarship to study Law in the UK. When the administrators of the scholarship programme discovered she was a woman, though, Sorabji was denied the scholarship. The Principal of Somerville worked with others to right the wrong by raising the funds to allow her take up her place.

Sorabji took her examinations in 1892 and returned to India, working for women in Purdah offering legal representation and help in the spheres of health and education. Admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1922 and to the Bar in 1923, she was also finally admitted to the Allahabad High Court in 1923 when its ban on women lawyers was lifted. She retired in 1929 and chose to return to England, living in Finsbury Park. In 2012, Lady (now Baroness) Brenda Hale unveiled a bust of Sorabji in the Great Hall of Lincoln’s Inn.

In 2016, Somerville and the University of Oxford launched the Cornelia Sorabji Graduate Scholarship Programme for students who seek to lead change on their return to India.

Somervillian and Cornelia Sorabji Scholar Aradhana Cherupara Vadekkethil on Cornelia Sorabji: ‘Sorabji is an inspiration to me: that she could write so radically and bravely about the position of women in India right at the start of the twentieth century made me realise that social change starts with those difficult conversations we have with each other about things that might well make us uncomfortable.’

Did you know? Cornelia Sorabji was a close friend of the poet laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson and read his elegiac poem ‘Crossing the Bar’ at the poet’s funeral in Westminster Abbey.

The Scottish astronomer, mathematician and geographer Mary Somerville’s interest in science was first kindled as a child by the natural world. During her adolescence, Somerville became an omnivorous autodidact, teaching herself Latin and Greek and seizing on chance encounters with family members and friends to acquire new books (including Euclid’s Elements). As a young woman, Somerville would rise early to play the piano, paint during the day then stay up late to study Euclid and algebra.

Somerville’s first marriage was not a happy one, primarily because her husband did not support her academic interests. When he died in 1807, she returned home to Scotland, where she promptly resumed her studies. It was at this time that she first read Isaac Newton’s Principia, which influenced her profoundly. With the encouragement of John Playfair, professor of natural philosophy at University of Edinburgh, she started to solve mathematical problems posed in the mathematical journal of the Military College at Marlow, leading to her first public recognition after her solution to a diophantine problem was awarded a silver medal in 1811.

In 1812, she married Dr William Somerville, who supported and greatly aided her studies. A move to London in 1819 led to a role as private tutor to Ada Lovelace and the two women attended the scientific gatherings where they met Charles Babbage. Somerville College owns a letter from Babbage to Somerville inviting her to view his ‘Calculating Engine’, an offer which Somerville frequently took him up on.

Mary Somerville was the author of five books. She published the first, The Mechanism of the Heavens, when she was 51. The second, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, ran to nine editions and sold over 15,000 copies and established her reputation in elite science. Her third book, Physical Geography, was the most popular of all her books, but her fourth book, Molecular and Microscopic Science, while also a popular success, led Somerville to wonder whether she should not have focused solely on mathematics, which she considered her natural inclination.

From 1833 onwards, the Somerville family spent much of their time in Italy, where Somerville continued to write and engage in current scientific debates. In 1868, four years before her death aged 91, she was the first person invited to sign John Stuart Mill’s unsuccessful petition for female suffrage. A mathematician to the last, she spent the day before her death revising a paper on quaternions.

In 1879, just seven years after Somerville’s death, Mary Ward’s suggestion of the name ‘Somerville’ for the as-yet unnamed non-denominational hall, was universally accepted by its founders.

Did you know? Two months after the publication of Somerville’s critically acclaimed book Mechanism of the Heavens, fellows of the Royal Society of London pledged £156.10 to pay for a marble bust of Somerville by renowned sculptor, Francis Chantrey, to sit in their meeting room. Today, a copy of the Chantrey bust can be found in the Mary Somerville Room.

Catherine Duleep Singh grew up in India until her father was deposed as ruler of the Punjab. He was offered sanctuary in England, and Duleep Singh and her sisters lived in Buckinghamshire and then in London. Catherine Duleep Singh and her sister Bamba both came to Somerville in 1890.

Along with her younger sister, Princess Sophie, Duleep Singh was an active suffragette. She joined the Esher and Moseley branch of the WPSU and continued to support the women’s movement long after the vote had been gained in 1918. Between the wars, Duleep Singh lived in Germany with her former governess Lina Schäfer, but in 1938 they were forced to flee back to England.

Did you know? Catherine Duleep Singh and Lina Schäfer used their house in Penn, Buckinghamshire to offer sanctuary to German-Jewish refugees before and during the Second World War.