25 Facts About Edith Morley

Edith Morley was the main twentieth century editor of the works of Henry Crabb Robinson.

Edith Morley was a Professor of English Language at University College, Reading, now the University of Reading, from 1908 to 1940, making her the first woman to be appointed to a chair at a British university-level institution.

Edith Morley was a socialist and member of the Fabian Society, active in various suffrage campaigns, and received an OBE for her efforts coordinating Reading's refugee programme during the Second World War.

Edith Julia Morley was born at 25 Craven Hill Gardens, Bayswater, central London, in 1875.

Edith Morley recalled in her memoir that she had not liked being a girl, being impatient of the restrictions placed on her activities by Victorian notions of decorum, such as wearing gloves and a veil to preserve her complexion.

The family had a telephone installed in 1903 or 1904, which Edith Morley notes was earlier than most of their friends.

Edith Morley spent "long and happy hours" at the Natural History Museum, London, recalling a memorable experience of being asked to tea by the Director and helping him and his assistant identify shells.

Edith Morley wrote that she "was fully convinced that they needed my assistance", and was pleased that her brother hadn't been similarly invited.

Edith Morley described it as a "delightful and wonderful experience and one which filled me with self-importance".

Edith Morley's father wanted her to be educated at home by a governess, but she insisted on being sent to school.

Edith Morley was sent to Boarding School for three years and was then educated at Doreck College, Kensington, for four years.

Edith Morley's teaching was entirely in German, and she learned German, French, English Literature, universal history and history of art.

Edith Morley was not instructed in Latin, mathematics, or science, noting that absence would have been reflected in private schools in England.

Edith Morley was later awarded an Associateship of King's College.

Edith Morley began teaching at King's College in 1899, taking a class in Gothic and Germanic philology.

The difficulties Edith Morley experienced getting an education helped to shape her political views towards Fabianism and she joined the Fabian Society around 1908 and became a member of the Fabian Executive Committee in 1914.

Edith Morley was a champion of women's rights, arguing that marriage and motherhood were used to hold women back from professional careers.

Edith Morley refused to pay her taxes in protest at having no vote and had her goods seized by the authorities.

Edith Morley refused to take part in the 1911 census for the same reason and she spent the night of the census walking up and down the main street in Aldeburgh with Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.

In 1908 Edith Morley was appointed Professor of English Language at University College in Reading, becoming the first woman appointed to a chair at an English university-level institution.

Edith Morley encountered prejudice from the male academic and literary establishments.

Edith Morley held the Reading professorship until 1940, by which time the erstwhile University College had become the University of Reading.

Edith Morley's speciality was English literature, and for many years she regularly published a lengthy roundup of recent scholarship in her field under the heading "The Eighteenth Century" in the bibliographical review entitled The Year's Work in English Studies.

Edith Morley is known for her comprehensive 1935 biography of the writer and traveller Henry Crabb Robinson and as the primary 20th century editor of Robinson's writings.

The University of Reading's Humanities and Social Sciences Building was renamed the Edith Morley Building in 2017.