Beryl Paston Brown

Beryl Paston Brown was born in London and educated at Streatham Hill High School and Newnham College, Cambridge. She did a teacher training course in London, however the Great Depression made it very difficult to secure a teaching post.

As Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge University, from 1961–71, Dame Beryl was credited with having developed a contemporary, relatively liberal social and academic life for students, as well as a teaching course degree which was validated by London University.

A proposal for the establishment of the B.Ed to the Council of the Senate of Cambridge University was first turned down in 1966, for fear of lowering standards, but was eventually approved in the 1970s with the assistance of Newnham College. [1]

• Lecturer, Portsmouth Training College, 1933–37
• Lecturer, Goldsmiths' College, 1937–44, 1946–51
• Temporary Assistant Lecturer, Newnham College, 1944–46
• Principal, City of Leicester Training College, 1952–61
• Principal, Homerton College, 1961–71
• Chair, Association of Teachers in Colleges & Departments of Education, 1965–66

She belonged to the:

• Executive Committee of the Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Education, serving as Chairman from 1965 to 1966 and edited its journal, Education for Teaching.
• Newsom Committee, which produced the report on secondary education, Half Our Future (1963)

Beryl Paston Brown was named DBE in 1967.[2] She retired to Lewes, East Sussex, where she became an Open University tutor and was awarded an Open University honorary degree.

She died in Lewes, East Sussex in 1997, aged 88 from undisclosed causes.

• Profile at Informaworld website
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography profile by Joyce Skinner, entitled "Brown, Dame Beryl Paston (1909–1997)", online edition, first published September 2004
• National Portrait Gallery
• Homerton College archived records site