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Pioneering women

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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

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

Helen Cam

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

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was a social reform activist.

George Eliot (1819-1880)

George Eliot attended Bedford College in 1849.

Kerstin Hesselgren

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

Hilda Martindale

Hilda Martindale was a pioneering senior civil servant.

Louisa Martindale

Dr Louisa Martindale was a groundbreaking surgeon.

Dame Margaret Miles (1911-1994)

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

Dr Rosalind Pitt-Rivers (1907-1990)

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

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.

Ethel Watts (1895-1963)

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

Emily Wilding Davison

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

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Research Excellence Framework

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Challenge-led research themes

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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