A rich history

I’m still working on our 1984 photos and, lo and behold, today I reached 18 June 1984. What were we doing 37 years ago today? Well, we were in Cambridge and my better half took me to see, for the first time, her alma mater, Girton College. Here she is standing and explaining to me where her room had been. At the age of 18 in 1962, from a small village in North Devon, she had won an Exhibition to attend Girton.
 
Girton, founded in 1869, was the UK’s first residential institution offering university-level education for women. It only took female students and its aim was to enable women to gain university degrees. However, that wasn’t achieved until 1948.
 
In 1880, the first Cambridge campaign on the question f womwn attaining degrees was sparked by the examination success of a Girton mathematician. Although it did not bring Cambridge degrees for women, they were granted official permission to sit Cambridge University examinations. In 1887, when a Girton classicist outshone all her male peers in Tripos examinations, a committee was formed to promote women’s access to Cambridge degrees, but the goal remained elusive. An iconic moment in the struggle came on 21 May 1897. After 18 months of campaigning, the members of the University voted by 1,707 to 661 to reject a proposal to allow women to receive degrees. It was more than another 20 years before the issue was again formally considered in Cambridge, and half a century before the university finally saw sense and permitted women to gain degrees. Since 1979 Girton has taken both female and male students.
 
The second photo is the Girton crest I bought for her while we were in Cambridge. It still hangs in our study.