In June1878 the Association for the Higher Education of Women was formed, aiming for the eventual creation of a college for women in Oxford. Some of the more prominent members of the association were Dr. Bradley, master of University College, T. H. Green, a prominent liberal philosopher, and Edward Talbot. The latter insisted on a specifically Anglican institution, which was unacceptable to most of the other members. The two parties eventually split, and one went on to found Lady Margaret Hall. Thus, in 1879, a second committee was formed "in which no distinction will be made between students on the ground of their belonging to different religious denominations". The members of this second committee included Dr. John Percival, Dr. G. W. Kitchin, A. H. D. Ackland, T. H. Green, Mary Ward, William Sidgwick, Henry Nettleship and A. G. Vernon Harcourt. This new effort resulted in the founding of Somerville Hall, named for the then recently deceased Mary Somerville, one of the greatest English mathematicians of the 19th century. The hall was renamed Somerville College in 1894.
Somerville remained a women's college until 1994. Today around 40-50% of students are men.
Notable former students
Somerville has educated some of the most influential minds of the 20th century.
All Souls | Balliol | Brasenose | Christ Church | Corpus Christi | Exeter | Green | Harris Manchester | Hertford | Jesus | Keble | Kellogg | Lady Margaret Hall | Linacre | Lincoln | Magdalen | Mansfield | Merton | New College | Nuffield | Oriel | Pembroke | Queen's | St Anne's | St Antony's | St Catherine's | St Cross | St Edmund Hall | St Hilda's | St Hugh's | St John's | St Peter's | Somerville | Templeton | Trinity | University | Wadham | Wolfson | Worcester
Mary Somerville (1780 1872), a twice-married Scot whose international reputation as a scientist was gained in the intervals of raising a family of five children, provided students with a formidable role model.
In the 1890s the Somerville Council was prominent in an unsuccessful campaign to admit women to degrees; the success of the 1920 campaign owed much to the diplomatic skills and academic reputation of the then Principal, Miss (later Dame) Emily Penrose.
As a mixed college, Somerville continues to take pride in its pioneering history, its traditions of academic excellence and public service, its scientific reputation, and its literary heritage, seeking to maintain and reinterpret for the 21st century its founders' commitment to the principle of equality of opportunity in education.
SomervilleCollege is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there.
This new effort resulted in the founding of Somerville Hall, named for the then recently deceased Mary Somerville, one of the greatest English mathematicians of the 19th century.
Agnes Catherine Maitland (Principal of Somerville Hall 1889 - 1894, Principal of SomervilleCollege 1894 - 1906)
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