Willa Muir was particularly vocal in the emancipation and inclusion of women in University life. As a member of the Women Student’s Debating Society, she regularly expressed her progressive views on women’s role in society. She rose through the ranks of the society, becoming president in the 1910-1911 session. One of the motions carried in …
Katherine Whitehorn, CBE, was a renowned journalist and author. In 1982, she was elected as rector of the University of St Andrews – the first female to hold this role in any Scottish university. The University opened Whitehorn Hall in 2018 as part of an effort to honour inspiring female figures with strong connections to the University. Whitehorn was …
Sue Innes was a feminist campaigner, journalist, and academic who helped establish St Andrews as a centre for second-wave feminism during her time as a student from 1970 to 1974. She was a founder of the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) and the head of the University magazine Aien. After graduation, Innes moved to Edinburgh, where she worked as a journalist, appearing on BBC …
Saba Douglas-Hamilton is a Kenyan wildlife conservationist, television presenter, and documentary film producer. She was born to an English zoologist father and an Italian-Kenyan conservationist mother. She first attended school in Kenya, then United World College of the Atlantic in Wales, before coming to the University of St Andrews. She graduated in 1993 with a Master of …
Frances Helen Melville was a suffragist and lifelong campaigner for women’s education. Melville graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1897 with a first-class Master of Arts in Philosophy. She stayed on as a tutor for 3 years before working as a lecturer at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. Following this, she moved to St Andrews to …
Born in Aberdeenshire in 1840, Louisa Lumsden was the youngest of seven children. Lumsden had a relatively interesting education, starting school in Cheltenham before moving to a boarding school near Brussels and completing her early education at a finishing school in London. Around this time, she heard of a course of lectures for women held at the …
Kathleen MacIver was the first woman to chair a department at the University of St Andrews. Despite facing prevailing negative attitudes, she was highly successful in her role and went on to have other prominent positions within the University. MacIver inspired a generation of women to pursue careers in academia; she was proudly focused on academic accessibility throughout …
Adeline Herbert Campbell, who was one of eight sisters, all of whom attended the University of St Andrews, lived in University Hall from 1905 to 1912 while completing her degree in medicine. She went on to serve as a nurse during WWI in Serbia, earning medals such as the Serbian Red Cross and the Order of Sava for her …
Margaret Fairlie was born in 1891 on West Balmirmer Farm, Angus. She studied medicine at the University of St Andrews and University College Dundee, graduating in 1915. Dr Fairlie began working at Dundee Royal Infirmary and teaching in the medical school in 1920. Dr. Fairlie eventually became Head of Clinical Gynaecology in Dundee and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in St Andrews, despite opposition to her appointment …
