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The LMHers active in Oxford suffrage

LMH was the first Oxford College to give women an education - we started with nine women in 1878. Thousands have graduated since. 

The Women in Humanities team highlighted five of LMH's brightest alumni in their publication focused on Oxford suffrage, and the role of the University of Oxford: Helena Deneke, Grace Hadow, Kathleen Courtney, Maude Royden, and Eleanor Lodge (1890). They were some of the influential women who campaigned for suffrage.

Today recognition goes to Kathleen Courtney. Reader of Modern Languages @lmhoxford, honorary secretary of the NUWSS and one of only three British delegates who attended the international peace conference at The Hague in 1915. @UniofOxford #vote100 #Oxfordsuffrage #WiHsuffrage pic.twitter.com/X6kMTmcf20

— Women in the Humanities (@WiH_Oxford) December 5, 2018

Today our focus is on Helena Deneke, student of @StHughsCollege and later librarian and tutor at St Hugh’s before moving to @lmhoxford taking up posts as bursar and tutor in German. Deneke was very active in the OWSSWS and in 1913 she took part in the Suffrage Pilgrimage. pic.twitter.com/PpO27l8FBG

— Women in the Humanities (@WiH_Oxford) December 6, 2018

Today we recognise Eleanor Lodge and Hilda Lorimer. Eleanor Lodge read history @lmhoxford and subsequently became the College’s librarian, vice-principal and history tutor. She was an OWSS member and the first woman to obtain a DLitt from the university. #Vote100 #Oxfordsuffrage pic.twitter.com/MuFiYItumq

— Women in the Humanities (@WiH_Oxford) December 11, 2018

Today we recognise Grace Hadow, student @SomervilleOx and teacher @lmhoxford and @BrynMawrCollege. She served as president of the OWSSWS, secretary of the Cirencester branch of the NUWSS and became Principal of the Society of Oxford Home-Students in 1929 ( later @StAnnesCollege). pic.twitter.com/CuPc4pE6uF

— Women in the Humanities (@WiH_Oxford) December 7, 2018

Grace Hadow

Grace Hadow was Chairman of the University Women’s Suffrage Society for Women’s Suffrage and marched on London demanding the right to vote alongside Helena Deneke.

LMH Fellow Mike Fraser remembered Grace Hadow (1875-1940) on Twitter:

At LMH (1906-11) Grace was a "conservative liberator", raising the standard of living for dons, establishing the role of Vice-Principal, seeing through building of a new dining hall & library (Talbot Hall).

Helena Deneke quotes Evelyn Jamison on Grace Hadow... pic.twitter.com/WxRFbwIwKn

— Michael Fraser (@drmikefraser) March 8, 2019

Pictured, Grace Hadow [on the left] with Madge Skipsworth, LMH French Tutor, in Southwold 1932 [ Helena Deneke memoir, vol. III, LMH Archives]. 

Helena Deneke, LMH Tutor in German 1913-1934, wrote of Grace Hadow:

“[ her] weekly visits [ to LMH] were short and packed with teaching and with engagements. But her personality was felt. We knew it was safe to confide in her…I remember a mock-trail staged by Senior Common Room and Junior Common Room on an issue involving forged cheques and braised beef. She-as judge-was discomforted when we produced actual cheques unexpectedly, but a witty recovery led to pronouncement on the guilty.” [ p.155]

Grace Hadow with Madge Skipsworth
Picture of timeline showing the history of women's suffrage movement in Oxford