- Frances Dove
Dame Frances Dove, DBE, JP (1847 - 1935) was an English women's campaigner who founded
Wycombe Abbey and other girls' schools. Jane Frances Dove was the daughter of aLincolnshire clergyman. Having acquired an education with some difficulty, she went toGirton College , Cambridge and became an Assistant Mistress atCheltenham Ladies' College in 1877. From there she went on to become headmistress ofSt Leonards School , St Andrews, Scotland in 1882. She left there to found and become first headmistress ofWycombe Abbey in 1896 giving it her own family motto "In Fide Vade". It is said she had her "first vision" ofWycombe Abbey when only seventeen years old and she worked all her life to promote girl's education. In 1900 she also founded the Godstowe School.Dove was a campaigner for the right of women to play a full part in the life of the community. Active in political life, she was elected as a councillor in
High Wycombe in November 1907 and almost became Mayor the following year. She supported thesuffragette campaign and kept the parents and girls fully informed of her political activities and community work. She also served asJustice of the Peace .On retirement from Wycombe Abbey in 1910, she endowed a scholarship at the school. In 1928 she was made
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire , and, in 1933, she was presented the Frances Dove Window in All Saints church in High Wycombe.Several of her old pupils were to become prominent in the fight for women's civil rights and one was to become one of the first women MPs. One of her
Australia n students was social reformerJessie Street , whom Dove referred to as 'Bushranger' (Coltheart 2004: 10-15).References
*Alison L. Prentice & Marjorie R. Theobald, "Women Who Taught: Perspectives on the History of Women and Teaching" (1991)
*Elsie Bowerman, "Stands there a School - Memories of Dame Frances Dove, D.B.E., Founder of Wycombe Abbey School" (1965)
*Jessie Street (ed. Lenore Coltheart), "Jessie Street, a revised autobiography", Federation Press, (2004) (ISBN 1-86287-502-2)External links
* [http://www.womeninlocalgovernment.org.uk/db/index.php Women in Local Government - includes pictures]
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