Skip to main content

Pioneering women

Site search

Pioneering women

Royal Holloway College and Bedford College were originally founded to give women access to higher education.

Both Colleges helped some remarkable women achieve great things.

Sarah Parker Remond.jpg

Sarah Parker Remond

Sarah Parker Remond was an abolitionist, women’s rights campaigner and public speaker.

Notable Alumni Helen Maudcam

Helen Cam

Cam’s career started at Royal Holloway College in 1904 with a scholarship to study history.

Notable alumni Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was a social reform activist.

George Eliot.jpg

George Eliot (1819-1880)

George Eliot attended Bedford College in 1849.

Kerstin Hesselgren

Kerstin Hesselgren

Kerstin Hesselgren was the first woman elected to the Swedish Parliament and the first Swedish female delegate to the League of Nations.

Our Alumni Founders drone view

Hilda Martindale

Hilda Martindale was a pioneering senior civil servant.

Notable Alumni Louisa Martindale

Louisa Martindale

Dr Louisa Martindale was a groundbreaking surgeon.

Margaret Miles.jpg

Dame Margaret Miles (1911-1994)

Dame Margaret Miles was the head of the first girl's comprehensive school.

Rosalin Pitt-Rivers

Dr Rosalind Pitt-Rivers (1907-1990)

Rosalind Pitt-Rivers helped discover the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine T3.

EVA GT 2.jpg

Professor Eva Germaine Rimington Taylor (1879-1966)

Professor Eva Germaine Rimington Taylor was the first woman to hold an academic chair of Geography in the UK.

Bedford College 031.jpg

Ethel Watts (1895-1963)

Ethel Watts was the first woman to qualify as a chartered accountant.

emily-wilding-davison-wide.jpg

Emily Wilding Davison

Emily Wilding Davison studied English at Royal Holloway and graduated in 1893.

Explore Royal Holloway

Scholarships

Get help paying for your studies at Royal Holloway through a range of scholarships and bursaries.

Clubs and societies

There are lots of exciting ways to get involved at Royal Holloway. Discover new interests and enjoy existing ones

Accommodation

Heading to university is exciting. Finding the right place to live will get you off to a good start

Support and wellbeing

Whether you need support with your health or practical advice on budgeting or finding part-time work, we can help

Departments and schools

Discover more about our 21 departments and schools

Research Excellence Framework

Find out why Royal Holloway is in the top 25% of UK universities for research rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’

Challenge-led research themes

Royal Holloway is a research intensive university and our academics collaborate across disciplines to achieve excellence.

Research institutes and centres

Discover world-class research at Royal Holloway

Royal Holloway today

Discover more about who we are today, and our vision for the future

Our history

Royal Holloway began as two pioneering colleges for the education of women in the 19th century, and their spirit lives on today

Our alumni

We’ve played a role in thousands of careers, some of them particularly remarkable

Governance

Find about our decision-making processes and the people who lead and manage Royal Holloway today