Barbara Gwyer

Gwyer was born on 1 January 1881 in Marylebone, London, England. Her parents were John Edward Gwyer and Edith Gwyer (née Linford), and she had a brother, Sir Maurice Gwyer. She was educated at the Grove School, an all-girls school in Highgate, Middlesex.[2] In 1900, she matriculated into Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford to study classics.[2][3] She achieved a second class in Mods in 1902, and a second class in Literae Humaniores in 1904.[2] However, she could not graduate as at the time the University of Oxford only gave degrees to men.[2] In 1920, when the statutes were changed, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and the Oxford MA.[2][3]

Having completed her degree in 1904, Gwyer worked as a secretary for two years.[2] From 1906 to 1908, she was an educational organiser for the West Riding County Council's educational department.[3]

Gwyer then moved into overseeing female students at university, an area where she would spend the rest of her career.[2] From 1910 to 1916, she was Vice-Warden of Ashburne Hall, a hall of residence for women at the Victoria University of Manchester.[2][3] From 1917 to 1924, she was Warden of University Hall, Leeds.[3] From 1924 to 1946, she served as Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford.[3] She was the first principal of a women's college to be already a member of Convocation when she took office, owing to her own education at the University of Oxford.[4]^:166 During her career as principal she oversaw the incorporation and drawing up of new statutes at St Hugh's, a process undertaken by the Oxford women's colleges in the 1920s in response to the Royal Commission of 1919.[4]^:167–8

Following her retirement in 1946, Gwyer was made an honorary fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford.[2] She lived for the rest of her life in Stokenchurch, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, but was a regular visitor to St Hugh's.[2][3] In old age, she became frail and used a wheelchair: she was described by Barbara Castle, who had studied at St Hugh's, as "a frail, gentle figure in a wheelchair—aeons away from the ogre I had known when she was principal".[2] She died on 16 February 1974, aged 93.[3]