Constance Maynard

Constance Maynard
Constance Louisa Maynard by George William Joy
Born	1849 Highbury
Died	1935 Gerrards Cross
Nationality	British

Constance Louisa Maynard (9 February 1849 – 26 March 1935) was the first principal of Westfield College (1882–1913) and a pioneer of women’s education. She was the first woman to read Moral Sciences (philosophy) at the University of Cambridge.

Constance Maynard was born in 1849 in Highbury, Middlesex to an upper-middle-class family. She was one of four daughters and two sons of Henry Maynard (1780-1888) a South African merchant, and his wife Louisa née Hillyard (1806-1878). She grew up in Hawkhurst, Kent, in the house of Oakfield. Her two brothers attended boarding school, while she and her sisters were educated at home by governesses, except for one year at Belstead School in Suffolk. When their education was considered complete, she and her sisters cared for her invalid mother and did charitable work. Studies of Maynards autobiography reveal that she suppressed her carnal desires to "achieve salvation."

In 1872 at the age of 23, Constance Maynard enrolled at Hitchin College for women which was affiliated with the University of Cambridge and was to become Girton College in 1873. She was the first woman to study the Moral Sciences tripos and in 1875 received the equivalent of a second class honours degree.

After leaving Girton, due to a temporary crisis in the family business, Constance Maynard was allowed to accept an invitation from Assistant Mistress Frances Dove to join the staff of Cheltenham Ladies' College. In 1877 she left with her colleague and friend Louisa Lumsden to establish St Leonard's School, at St Andrews, where Lumsden was head. During her three years (1877-1880) here, she rejected offers of headships, including that of her former school Belstead. She also refused a marriage proposal from Scottish Minister Dr James Robertson.

In 1880 she moved to London with her brother and studied part-time at the Slade School of Fine Art. Whilst studying there she became involved with a group of individuals including Major Charles Hamilton Malan, Ann Dudin Brown and Caroline Cavendish, with the shared aim of establishing a ladies' college. Constance Maynard was an integral part of forming the plans for her ideal college - to prepare ladies for the London degree, based on Christian principles. The group first met for discussions in February 1882, and in May Constance Maynard was offered the position of Mistress (a title borrowed from Girton). The rapid progress was possible because the Petrie family had introduced Ann Dudin Brown who funded the college's foundation.← In October 1882 Westfield College opened in two private houses in Hampstead. It was one of the first higher education institutions for women in England and one of the first in which women could gain degrees.