Mistress of Girton College 1942-49

Kathleen Teresa Blake Butler was the eldest of a large family and was
educated at home (with a Norwegian governess) and at schools in France
and Germany. After obtaining a Teachers’ Certificate at Cambridge
Training College in 1908, she read modern languages at Newnham College
1909-13. She taught for a year before becoming a lecturer in French at
Royal Holloway College 1913-15. She came to Girton in 1915 as Lecturer
in Modern Languages 1915-41. When the Modern Languages Tripos was
reformed and English separated from it, she was appointed Director of
Studies in Modern Languages 1917-38. She was Fellow 1924-42;
Vice-Mistress 1936-38 and Mistress 1942-49. She lectured on most periods
of French and Italian literature and her modern poetry course was an
innovation in 1918. She held a number of University positions including
a University lectureship in Italian 1924-48 (formalised in 1926 when
university appointments were officially opened to women), membership of
the Faculty Board of Modern and Medieval Languages 1928-48 and of the
Education Syndicate 1941-48, and was Deputy for the Professor of Italian
1939-45. Her influence within the University was crucial in the
negotiations to admit women to full membership in 1948, and she stayed
on an extra year as Mistress to facilitate that change. KTB was the
joint founder and editor of Italian Studies and published works on
French and Italian language and literature. She was, with Helen
McMorran, a compiler of volume I of the Girton College Register 1869-1946.