Enhanced version of original printed entry | Encoded version: searched-for items red; some Appendix and Addenda included; unique identifier PLP898BSw |
Phillpotts, Bertha Surtees. Bertha Surtees Phillpotts (1877–1932)
| Bertha Surtees PHILLPOTTS Mrs Bertha Surtees NEWALL Approx. lifespan: 18771932 Mistress: Girton College 1922-25 Bertha Surtees Phillpotts was educated at home in Bedford (her father was the headmaster of Bedford Grammar School). She was a niece of Katharine Jex-Blake and came to Girton nearly two decades after her aunt as a College Scholar to read Modern Languages 1898-1901. Her fourth year (1902) was spent studying Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon. She continued her research first as a Pfeiffer Research Student, spending time working in Iceland and at Copenhagen University then as the first Lady Carlisle Research Student at Somerville College, Oxford 1913-1916; and after her period as Mistress, as a Research Fellow at Girton 1925-32. She was also College Librarian 1906-09. By the time BSP became Mistress in 1922 she was an internationally renowned scholar of Scandinavian languages, archaeology and literature - she had also spent the previous year as Principal of Westfield College, London. Her period as Mistress was very short but memorable. Her influence as a member of the Statutory Commission for Cambridge University (1923-27) did much to secure benefits for both women and the College within the University. Her University appointments included Lecturer and Director of Scandinavian Studies (1926-32) and Head of the Department of Other Languages (1930-32). She was created DBE in 1929. She married Hugh Frank Newall, Fellow of Trinity and Professor of Astrophysics, in 1931. Katharine JEX-BLAKE Hugh Frank NEWALL |