1. Dorothea Beale was born on 21 March 1831 at 41 Bishopsgate Street, London, the fourth child and third daughter of Miles Beale, a surgeon, of a Gloucestershire family who took an active interest in educational and social issues.
16 Facts About Dorothea Beale
1. 2.
Dorothea Beale was first cousin to Caroline Frances Cornwallis, a relationship that influenced the young Dorothea.
3.
In 1847, she and two older sisters began attending Mrs Bray's fashionable school for English girls in Paris, where Dorothea Beale remained till the revolution of 1848 closed the school.
4.
In 1849, Dorothea Beale was appointed mathematics tutor at Queen's College, London, and in 1854 she became head teacher in the school attached to the college, under Miss Parry.
5.
In 1858, Dorothea Beale established a scholarship for Casterton School students to attend Cheltenham.
6.
On 16 June 1858 Miss Dorothea Beale was chosen out of 50 candidates to be principal of the Ladies' College, Cheltenham, the earliest proprietary girls' school in England.
7.
Dorothea Beale spent the rest of her educational career at Cheltenham.
8.
In 1869, Dorothea Beale published, with a preface by herself, the commissioners' Reports on the Education of Girls.
9.
Dorothea Beale saw that the absence of all means of training teachers was a main obstacle to improvement.
10.
In 1880, mainly with a view to supplying a link between past and present pupils, Dorothea Beale founded The Cheltenham Ladies' College Magazine, and remained its editor until her death.
11.
Outside her college work Dorothea Beale associated herself with nearly every effort for educational progress, and with local philanthropic institutions.
12.
Dorothea Beale was president of the Headmistresses' Association from 1895 to 1897, and was a member of numerous educational societies.
13.
Dorothea Beale identified herself with the movement for women's suffrage, being a vice-president of the Kensington Society.
14.
Dorothea Beale's activities remained unimpaired in her later years, despite deafness and signs of cancer, which became apparent in 1900.
15.
Dorothea Beale died after an operation for cancer in a nursing home in Cheltenham on 9 November 1906.
16.
Dorothea Beale's body was cremated at Perry Barr, Birmingham, and the ashes buried in a small vault on the south side of the Lady Chapel of Gloucester Cathedral.