18 Facts About Hilda Lorimer

Elizabeth Hilda Lockhart Lorimer was a British classical scholar who spent her career at Oxford University.

Hilda Lorimer's best known work was in the field of Homeric archaeology and ancient Greece, but she visited and published on Turkey, Albania and the area that later became Yugoslavia.

Hilda Lorimer took the position of vice-principal of Somerville College during the Second World War.

Hilda Lorimer was the second of eight children born to Reverend Robert Lorimer and his wife.

Hilda Lorimer's brother David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer was a lieutenant-colonel in the British Indian Army, a linguist and a political official in the British Indian government.

Hilda Lorimer never used her first name; her family called her Hiddo; and at Oxford she came to be known as Highland Hilda because of her Scottish background.

Hilda Lorimer attended the High School of Dundee in Scotland from 1889 to 1893, walking five miles daily from home in order to attend.

Hilda Lorimer was granted a scholarship to Girton College at Cambridge University, where she earned a first.

Hilda Lorimer's degree was only officially awarded at the first Cambridge degree-giving ceremony to award degrees to women, in 1948, fifty-five years after she had joined Girton as a student.

Hilda Lorimer was noted for her Saturday ornithology expeditions, which continued throughout her career in Oxford, and gained somewhat of a reputation for eccentricity and invincibility.

Hilda Lorimer was a skilled Latin linguist, but at Oxford her interests turned toward archaeology.

Hilda Lorimer took a sabbatical to attend the British School at Athens in 1901 and 1902.

Dorothy Lamb, Lillian Tenant and Hilda Lorimer were the first women to participate in an excavation conducted by the British School at Athens.

Hilda Lorimer took an Oxford MA at the first opportunity, in 1920, and a Cambridge MA in 1948.

Hilda Lorimer returned to Athens in 1922 and became a university lecturer at Oxford from 1929 to 1937, serving at Somerville as tutorial fellow of Classics until 1934, and of classical archaeology from 1934 to 1939.

Hilda Lorimer retired in 1939, but remained an honorary fellow.

Hilda Lorimer died on 1 March 1954 and is buried with her siblings in Warriston Cemetery in north Edinburgh.

Hilda Lorimer published extensively on Homeric studies throughout her career, but her seminal work came late in life with the publication of Homer and the Monuments.