Christine Burrows

Christine Burrows was the daughter of Esther Elizabeth Burrows and Henry Parker Burrows.[1] Her father, a businessman, died before she was born; her mother was the first principal of St Hilda's.[2] She was born in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire on 4 January 1872[1] and educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. She earned a bachelor's degree in history from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and completed a master's degree in 1921.[3]

Burrows became vice principal of St Hilda's at the age of 23, and succeeded her mother as principal in 1910.[4] She resigned from the principalship in 1919, to care for her ailing mother.[1]

Burrows was principal of the Society of Oxford Home Students (now St Anne's College, Oxford), from 1921 to 1929.[4][3] In 1920 she and five others represented the British Federation of University Women at the International Federation of University Women meeting in London.[5] In 1926 she served as principal of an Oxford summer course for over 200 American women students.[6] Again, in 1929, she resigned her position to care for her mother, who died in 1935. In her retirement, Burrows served on a committee of the Church of England, on the place of women in the church, and wrote a history of St. Hilda's College.[1]

Burrows died at St Luke's Home, Linton Road, Oxford, on 10 September 1959. Following a funeral at St Giles' Church, Oxford, her body was cremated.[1]

• A painted portrait of Christine Burrows, from about 1920, at Art UK.
• A photograph of Christine Burrows from 1950, in the National Portrait Gallery.