Portal:University of Oxford/Selected biography/67

Lilian Faithfull (1865–1952) was an English teacher, headmistress, women's rights advocate, magistrate, social worker and humanitarian. She was one of the "Steamboat ladies" who were part of the struggle for women to gain university education. She obtained a first-class degree in English from Somerville College, where she was the first captain of the women's hockey team and the college tennis champion. She later suggested that women who had competed for Oxford or Cambridge in intercollegiate sports should be awarded Blues, like their male counterparts, and this was implemented in 1891. From 1889 until 1894 she was a lecturer at Royal Holloway College and then joined King's College London, where she regarded her 13 years as vice-principal of the Ladies Department as the happiest of her career. She was principal of Cheltenham Ladies' College from 1907 until 1922. In 1920, she became Justice of the Peace for Cheltenham, becoming one of the first women magistrates in England. Faithfull started the organisation that is now Lilian Faithfull Homes in Cheltenham, and she spent the last few months of her life in the care of one of the homes.