ANNE CLOUGH
- A Pioneer of Education for Women By Margaret Brecknell In October 1871 a new hall of residence was opened in Cambridge, which for the first time provided accommodation for women who wished to attend lectures at the university but lived too far away to commute daily.
returned to Liverpool. Her brothers attended one of England’s most prestigious public schools, Rugby School,
till 7.30. From 9 till 11 at German, then reading Bible, French, the History of the Jews with mother till going-out time…. In the evening Hallam
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ts origins were humble, but this establishment would later become Newnham College which, as it approaches its 150th anniversary, can still boast of being the oldest university college run by women, for women. As its first Principal, Liverpool-born Anne Clough played an integral role in the early days of Newnham College and she is rightly celebrated today as one of the pioneers of further education for women in this country, both at Cambridge and here in the North-West.
Anne Jemima Clough was born on 20th January 1820, the only daughter of James, a wealthy cotton merchant of Welsh descent, and his wife Anne. When she was still a small child, the family emigrated from Liverpool to start a new life in the United States. She spent most of her childhood at Charleston in South Carolina until, in 1836, she and her parents 64
Above: portrait of Anne Clough
but Anne was educated at home, as was the usual practice at the time for girls from middle/ upper-class families. This extract from her diary, which appeared in a later biography, illustrates how seriously the young Anne approached her studies, “I must be very industrious this week; I should like to get up at 5, prayer and reading till 6, then Euclid and Greek
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and poetry”. Anne was particularly close to her brother, Arthur, who would later become a well-known figure in his own right as a poet of some note. He is said to have “advised her as to her studies and kept her constantly supplied with books”. Soon after returning to England, Anne began to work as a volunteer at a
local charity school in Liverpool, an experience which would ignite her lifelong interest in education. She also appears to have harboured ambitions of becoming a writer but was compelled to abandon the idea when in 1841 her father’s business failed. Instead, in order to help with the family’s precarious financial position she established her own small day school. It is apparent from her diary that in the early days Anne found the job difficult. In one entry from 1842 she writes, “At times get very tired of school-keeping, and find it more laborious and wearisome than I expected”. The school struggled to attract pupils and after four years she gave it up, but her passion for education remained. In 1847 she wrote that “I still hanker after a more decided vocation of teaching”. The following year she finally had the opportunity to receive some formal teacher training in London, in conjunction with working in two of the capital’s schools, before being compelled to return home to Liverpool when her mother fell ill. In 1852 Anne and her mother moved to Ambleside, an area which they knew well as a result www.lancmag.com
