Helen Gladstone

Helen Gladstone (28 August 1849 – 19 August 1925) was a British educationist, vice-principal at Newnham College in Cambridge, and co-founder of the Women's University Settlement. Life Gladstone was born in London. Helen came to notice when her sister Mary Gladstone proposed that she should become one of the first students to study at Newnham College in Cambridge. In 1877, aged 28 Helen attended Newnham College as one of 25 students. She decided to not take the tripos but she did pass the higher examination. After completing her course, Gladstone became the assistant to the first principal Anne Clough, an early English suffragist. Gladstone later became vice principal of Newnham, after Nora Sidgwick in 1892. At Newnham Helen was known for her sweetness of disposition and good sense, as well as telling anecdotes that frequently mentioned her father. In 1886, Gladstone turned down the chance to be the first principal of Royal Holloway College but she suspected that they just wanted "a Gladstone." During the 1890s, Helen and her sisters took turns as the "daughter at home" to take care of their aging and increasingly frail parents, and in 1896, she regretfully decided to step down from her post at Newnham and move back to the family home for the reminder of her parents' lives. Both of her parents had died by 1900.