Elizabeth Dawes

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]

Elizabeth Dawes
In The Sketch, 29 May 1895
Born	(1864-11-07)7 November 1864 Surbiton, England
Died	19 August 1954(1954-08-19) (aged 89) Weybridge, England
Academic background
Alma mater	University of London
Thesis	The Pronunciation of Greek with Suggestions for a Reform in Teaching that Language
Academic work
Discipline	Classics
Institutions	Bryn Mawr College

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]

Later life

Dawes died in Weybridge on 19 August 1954.^[1][14]

Select bibliography

• The pronunciation of Greek with suggestions for a reform in teaching that language (1889)
• Classical Latin vocabularies for schools and colleges (1890)
• Attic Greek vocabularies for schools and colleges (1890)
• The pronunciation of the Greek aspirates (1894)