Elizabeth Anna Sophia Dawes (1864–1954) was a 19th-century British classical scholar and the first woman to receive a DLitt degree from the University of London.[1][2]
Early life
Elizabeth was born on 7 November 1864 in Surbiton, England.[1] In the 1881 census, aged 16, she is already listed as "scholar". At this time, the family, consisting of father the Revd John Samuel,[2] mother Anna Sophia Elizabeth (or called Elizabeth Anna Sophia as well, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)[1] and eight children, live at Newton House on Maple Road in Surbiton.[3]
Her older sister Mary Clara Dawes [Wikidata] was also a scholar, and the first woman to receive a Masters in Arts.[4]
Mary Clara Dawes passed the matriculation examination in January 1879 and placed fourth in the list of masters of arts for the University of London in July 1884.[5][6][7]
Education
Dawes spent a year at Bedford College, London before matriculating as a Scholar at Girton College, Cambridge University.[8] She got a good mark in the Classical Tripos but, as was the rule at that time, could not graduate from the University of Cambridge with a degree. Her good results are notable because girls generally received an inferior education to their male counterparts, which generally translated into lower marks in the Tripos.[9]
She subsequently acquired a BA from the University of London, as well as being the first woman to receive a DLitt from the University of London, in 1895.[1][10] The title of her thesis was The Pronunciation of Greek with Suggestions for a Reform in Teaching that Language, indicating an early interest in educational reform which would persist into her career as a headmistress of a girls' school.
Career
Contrary to many women of the Victorian era, Dawes had a career. In addition to a professorship held at Bryn Mawr College in the US during the academic year 1886–87, when she was only 22, she was headmistress of a school in Surrey together with her sister Mary.[11] In 1928, she translated Anna Comnena's Alexiad from Greek into English.[12] The work is still in print almost 90 years later.[13]
^"The First Lady Master of Arts". Bow bells : a magazine of general literature and art for family reading. Vol. 41, no. 1056. London. 23 October 1884. p. 420.
^"Miss Elizabeth A. S. Dawes". The Times. No. 1330. London. 25 May 1895. Retrieved 2 September 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^Breay, Claire (1999). "Women and the Classical Tripos 1869 – 1914". In Stray, Christopher (ed.). Classics in 19th and 20th Century Cambridge: Curriculum, Culture and Community. Cambridge: Cambridge Philological Society. p. 49.
^Murray, Janet Horowitz; Stark, Myra (1895). "University Intelligence". The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions. ISBN9781315396569. Retrieved 20 June 2020. {{cite news}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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