Margaret Lambert (1906-1995)
Dr Margaret Lambert (1906-1995) was appointed as Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of St Andrews in 1956. She was the first woman historian at St Andrews to have been hired directly as a lecturer,…
44 articles found
Ruth Macrides (1949-2019)
The esteemed Byzantine historian Dr Ruth Macrides spent around twenty years in a series of temporary teaching roles in the Department of Mediaeval History at the University of St Andrews, teaching a wide range of…
Elizabeth G.K. Hewat (1895-1968)
In 1933, Elizabeth Glendinning Kirkwood Hewat quoted from the Book of Proverbs: ‘Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom’.[1] She was, perhaps, referring to a definition of wisdom other than ‘sage advice’.…
Elizabeth Peddie Steele Hutton MA (1866-1917)
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
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…
A brief history of women historians at St Andrews
From 1877 onwards, the innovative St Andrews LLA qualification enabled women from across the UK (and beyond) to be examined and certified to degree level, at a time when few universities were willing to award degrees…
Edith MacQueen and the Challenges of Academic Job-Hunting, 1930s-1960s
The career trajectory of Edith MacQueen – the first woman to obtain a PhD in History at the University of St. Andrews – poses a certain paradox: a woman of high academic standing, she possessed the right credentials…
Ann Kettle
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…
Sue Hill remembers medieval history… with cucumber sandwiches
In the 1970s it was a truth universally acknowledged that most people from Dumfries Academy – my secondary school – went on to Glasgow University to study. I might very well have done the same (writes Sue Hill, MA…
Valerie Torgerson
Valerie Torgerson Waddelove graduated from St Andrews with an MA in Medieval History in 1970. This is an edited extract from her contribution to the Alumni Chronicle in 2020. How can it possibly be 50 years since I…