19 Facts About Lilian Faithfull

Lilian Mary Faithfull CBE was an English teacher, headmistress, women's rights advocate, magistrate, social worker, and humanitarian.

Lilian Faithfull was one of the "Steamboat ladies" who were part of the struggle for women to gain university education.

Lilian Faithfull was principal of Cheltenham Ladies' College from 1907 until 1922.

Lilian Faithfull's father, Francis Faithfull, was a clerk at the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors.

Lilian Faithfull lived in an upper-middle class country house in Hertfordshire and was educated at The Grange in Hoddesdon, and later at home by her mother and governesses.

Lilian Faithfull entered Somerville College of Oxford University in 1883, just four years after it was established.

Lilian Faithfull was the first captain of the women's hockey team and the college tennis champion, and graduated with a first in English in 1887.

Lilian Faithfull later claimed an ad eundem degree from Trinity College, Dublin in 1905.

Between 1887 and 1888, Lilian Faithfull taught at Oxford High School, and was secretary to the principal of Somerville, Madeleine Shaw Lefevre.

In 1890, Lilian Faithfull suggested that women who had competed for Oxford or Cambridge in intercollegiate sports should be awarded special badges like their male counterparts.

Lilian Faithfull wanted to get rid of the distinction between the professional woman and the women studying "home science".

In 1895, Lilian Faithfull became the first president of the Ladies' Hockey Association, and remained in that role until at least 1907.

In 1907, Lilian Faithfull became the principal of Cheltenham Ladies' College, succeeding Dorothea Beale.

Lilian Faithfull was active as a social worker, improving social conditions for the poor in London, and was chair of a committee to improve nutrition in children.

Lilian Faithfull founded the Old People's Housing Society in Cheltenham, later renamed the Lilian Faithfull Homes.

Lilian Faithfull was the model for the Helen Butterfield character in The Constant Nymph, a 1924 novel by Margaret Kennedy.

Lilian Faithfull was a Fellow of King's College London and received an honorary MA from Oxford in 1925.

In 1926 Lilian Faithfull was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Lilian Faithfull died on 2 May 1952 at Lilian Faithfull House, and was buried in Cheltenham.