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…
45 articles found
Barbara Crawford
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
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 (1929-2023)
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…
Janet Low (d.1962)
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 Wright (1924-1981)
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…
History graduates: statistics 1900-1975
Just one student graduated with Honours in History in 1900; by 1975, the graduating class had grown to 59 students. We know this, because the University of St Andrews ‘Calendars’, published annually, contained lists of…
Caroline Doris Ketelbey (1896-1990)
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…
Early Graduates as Authors and Broadcasters: Annie M’Killiam and Rhoda Power
For those of the first women History graduates who hoped to use their historical learning in a career of some sort, there were relatively few options in the early twentieth century. There were very few jobs for women…
Wardens as Historians
Women’s colleges and residences provided important job opportunities for early women academics. Unlike Cambridge, Oxford or London, St Andrews did not establish women-only colleges, but it did have women-only…