Dorothea Beale LLD (21 March 1831 – 9 November 1906) was a suffragist, educational reformer, author and Principal of the Cheltenham Ladies' College.
Born in Bishopsgate, England, she was the founder of St Hilda's College, Oxford.
Her name is associated with that of Frances Buss in a satirical rhyme:
- Miss Buss and Miss Beale,
- Cupid's darts do not feel.
- How different from us,
- Miss Beale and Miss Buss.
The lines refer to their unmarried state and their dedication to the cause of women's education. Miss Beale was appointed headmistress of the Clergy Daughters' School in Lancashire in 1857, but soon moved on to become Principal of Cheltenham Ladies' College, a post which she held until her death. In 1885, she founded a new institution, St Hilda's College, Cheltenham - a teachers' training college. In 1893, she founded St Hilda's Hall at Oxford, later St Hilda's College, Oxford. She was an active supporter of the suffragette movement. In 1865 she was one of the co-founders of the Kensington Society, a discussion group that became the London Society for Women's Suffrage.
After her death she was cremated in Birmingham before being buried at Gloucester Cathedral.
Famous quotes containing the word dorothea:
“The boy stood on the burning deck,
Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle’s wreck,
Shone round him o’er the dead.
Yet beautiful and bright he stood,
As born to rule the storm;
A creature of heroic blood,
A proud though childlike form.”
—Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1783–1835)