Girton College, Cambridge

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Girton College, Cambridge
Full name	Girton College
Motto	- "Better is wisdom than weapons of war" (Alumni)
Named after	Girton Village
Previous names	The College for Women (1869), Girton College (1872)
Established	1869
Sister College(s)	Somerville College
Mistress	Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern
Location	Huntingdon Road
Undergraduates	503
Postgraduates	201
Homepage	Boatclub

Girton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The College was established on October 16, 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon, as the first residential college for women in England.

It was called the College for Women, and was located at Benslow House, Hitchin, a town in Hertfordshire, England. The first group of students were known as The Pioneers. In 1872 the present site, located about two and a half miles northwest of the centre of Cambridge, next to the village of Girton was purchased; the College was then renamed Girton College, and opened at the new location in October of 1873.

Over the years, many additions have considerably expanded the size of the college, most recently the award-winning library extension. Numerically and geographically, Girton is now one of the largest Colleges in Cambridge. However, the geographical separation means that most people socialise within the College more than elsewhere (i.e. at other Colleges), which is said to create a distinctive, even cosy, atmosphere that is well renowned throughout the University. Girton also proudly houses an Egyptian mummy named "Hermione", and is the only Cambridge college to have its own indoor heated swimming pool.

On April 27, 1948, women were admitted to full membership of the University of Cambridge, and Girton College received the status of a College of the University. However, to remember the time when women were not allowed to obtain degrees of the University of Cambridge, no gowns are worn during the college feast, when students in their final year are celebrated.

The college became mixed in 1977 with the arrival of the first male Fellows; male undergraduates have been admitted since 1979.

Although the main site for Girton is about 2.5 miles northwest of the city centre, there is an accommodation annexe, Wolfson Court, situated next to the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, in the western suburbs, but within easy walking distance of the University Library and downtown. Although the rooms in Wolfson are relatively small, they are far more comfortable than those in drafty Girton.

Girtonians are known for their chant of "We are Girton - super Girton! No one likes us, but we don't care!", in imitation of Millwall F.C. fans' famous song. The reference to "no one likes us" is regarded to be due to the relative distance of Girton in comparison to many of the other colleges. Anecdotes about the distance of Girton from other Cambridge colleges are plentiful, for example that, by popular legend, more Cambridge students have visited Delhi than Girton college.

Girton enjoys the rare distinction of having a song written by Gilbert & Sullivan named after the College: “Oh, maiden rich in Girton lore.” (Utopia)

In 2004, The Sun newspaper suggested that Girton College was 'now trendy'^{[citation needed]}.

Contents 1 Notable alumnae 2 See also 3 Institutions named after Girton College 4 Further reading

[edit] Notable alumnae

• Hertha Marks Ayrton, electrical engineer
• Isabel Cooper-Oakley, Theosophical writer
• Delia Derbyshire, musician and composer
• Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
• Jessie Isabel Hetherington, New Zealand educator
• Rosalyn Higgins, President of the International Court of Justice,
• Arianna Huffington, political author and activist
• Wendy Holden, novelist
• Dorothy Jewson, Labour MP
• Anna Maxted, novelist
• Rosamond Lehmann, romance novelist
• Sheila Scott Macintyre, mathematician
• Ada Isabel Maddison, mathematician
• Margrethe II of Denmark, Queen Regnant of Denmark
• Dorothy Marshall, historian and educator
• Annie Maunder, astronomer
• Constance Maynard, British feminist and educator
• Rod McAllister, Architect
• Ahmed Mulla, Electrical Engineer
• Sarojini Naidu, Indian poet and politician
• Joseph O'Neill, novelist and non-fiction writer
• Sheila Pim, mystery writer
• Emily James Smith Putnam, American educator and historian
• Gisela Richter, Classical archaeologist and art historian
• Joan Robinson, British economist
• Clara Ruth Rouse, missionary and ecumenical leader
• Ethel Sargant, botanist
• Charlotte Angas Scott, mathematician
• Irene (Biss) Spry, economic historian
• Margaret Storey, children's book author
• Bertha Swirles (Lady Jeffreys), physicist
• Sandi Toksvig, comedian
• Princess Takamado of Japan
• Renee Winegarten, literary critic
• Barbara Adam Wootton, social scientist and economist
• Dorothy Wrinch, mathematical biologist
• Grace Chisholm Young, mathematician
• Audrey Price, chemist
• Steph Swainston, writer

For details of graduates in mathematics up to 1940 see

• List of graduates of the University of Cambridge on Mathematical Women in the British Isles, 1878-1940

[edit] See also

• Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge
• Category:Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge

[edit] Institutions named after Girton College

• Girton Grammar School, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
• Girton Hall, University of California, Berkeley

[edit] Further reading

• Girton: Thirty Years in the Life of a Cambridge College. Third Millennium Publishing, 2006.

Colleges of the University of Cambridge
Christ's | Churchill | Clare | Clare Hall | Corpus Christi | Darwin | Downing | Emmanuel | Fitzwilliam | Girton | Gonville and Caius | Homerton | Hughes Hall | Jesus | King's | Lucy Cavendish | Magdalene | New Hall | Newnham | Pembroke | Peterhouse | Queens' | Robinson | St Catharine's | St Edmund's | St John's | Selwyn | Sidney Sussex | Trinity | Trinity Hall | Wolfson