Mary Collin

Mary Collin
1924 portrait by Charlotte Blakeney Ward
Born	April 1, 1860 Cambridge
Died	July 22, 1955(1955-07-22) (aged 95) St David's Hospital, Cardiff
Known for	Head teacher and suffrage leader

Mary Collin (1 April 1860 – 22 July 1955)^[1] was an English teacher and campaigner for women's suffrage during the early part of the 20th century. Collin was the Chair of the Cardiff and District Women's Suffrage Society.^[2]

Life

Mary Collin was born in Cambridge and educated at Notting Hill High School for Girls,^[3] later graduating from Bedford College, London, in French and German. Having spent seven years as Second Mistress at Nottingham High School for Girls, she was appointed head of Cardiff Intermediate School for Girls (later Cardiff High School for Girls) in 1895, when the school first opened; she retained the post until 1924.^[4] She gathered well qualified teachers to her school, including Beatrice May Baker, who copied her approach when leading Badminton School to be more progressive.^[5] Collin's position in the community enabled her to command respect as a leader of the women's suffrage movement.^[6]

As a head teacher, she supported the teaching of mathematics and science to girls, and advocated that school inspectors should themselves have a teaching qualification.^[7] A portrait of Miss Collin, by an unknown artist, has been rediscovered at St Fagans National Museum of History and put on display.^[8]

References

1. Deirdre Beddoe (2004). "Mary Collin (1860-1955), headmistress". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/51850. Retrieved 11 February 2018. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. Ursula Masson (2000). "'Political Conditions in Wales are Quite Different...': party politics and votes for women in Wales, 1912-15". Women's History Review. 9 (2): 369–388. doi:10.1080/09612020000200248. S2CID 145410868.
3. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ISBN 978-0198614111
4. W. Gareth Evans (1 January 1990). Education and Female Emancipation: The Welsh Experience, 1847-1914. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-1079-3.
5. "Baker, Beatrice May (1876–1973), headmistress and internationalist | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/95652. Retrieved 2 May 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
6. Ryland Wallace (2009). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Wales, 1866-1928. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-2173-7.
7. The Journal of Education. Oxford University Press. 1905.
8. ""Here comes the Devil": Welsh Suffrage and the Suffragettes". National Museum Wales. Retrieved 11 February 2018.