Meet our women historians!
While wandering along the West Sands or over the Links at the turn of the twentieth century, a walker may have come across a student of history and, latterly, divinity gazing out towards the St Andrews skyline. This…
Vanessa Harding knew nothing about St Andrews until she arrived on the sleeper at the start of term in autumn 1970. ‘It looked like a nice place to be, and I knew people who were there. It’s the kind of decision you…
Ann Kettle was a lecturer in the Department of Mediaeval History at St Andrews for more than forty years. In addition to her teaching and research, she held various administrative posts in the university. Beyond St…
Barbara Crawford lectured in the Department of Medieval History from 1971 until 2001. She had previously been both an undergraduate and postgraduate student at St Andrews, and was the first long-term woman staff member…
Jane Dawson arrived at the University of St Andrews in 1977, and she remembers that her arrival caused something of a stir. Not only was she the first Glenfiddich Fellow in Scottish History, set up through money…
Lorna Walker studied History at St Andrews in the late 1940s, and returned in the 1960s as a lecturer in Medieval History and Warden of University Hall. She retired in 1991, and lived in St Andrews until her death in…
As far as we know, the first woman to teach History formally within the University was Janet Low. She was one of several people, men and women, appointed during the First World War as ‘Temporary Lecturers and…
Anne Margaret Chaloner Wright had a life-long connection to St Andrews. She was born here, the daughter of an academic; was educated here; and spent the last 15 years of her life as Warden of Hamilton Hall and lecturer…
Doris Ketelbey was the first woman to hold a long-term position as member of staff in History at St Andrews [read about other early women staff]. She was appointed as an Assistant Lecturer in 1935; and retired as…
Edith Mary Johnston, MA 1951 PhD 1956 (later, Mrs Liik) As far as we know, Edith Mary Johnston (1930-2008) was the first female St. Andrews PhD historian to go on to an academic career. Born in Belfast, in 1930 to…