"The creativity, intelligence and activity of successive generations, rather than the fact that we're female [or] that Sylvia Plath studied here, make the College what is right now." Caroline Brown
Helen Gladstone was the youngest daughter of the Liberal Prime Minister, W.E. Gladstone and his wife Catherine, nee Glynne. She came to Newnham as a student in 1877 and stayed on as Principal’s Secretary. Subsequently she became Vice-Principal in charge of the Hall that is now known as Sidgwick Hall. She thrived at Newnham and was known for her sweetness of disposition and good sense. The newly-founded Royal Holloway College tried to tempt her away, to become their Principal; but she resisted firmly, suspecting that they wanted the Gladstone name as much as the person. Newnham had its own Gladstone-related publicity. In January 1887, watched by a great crowd, the Gladstone parents ceremoniously planted a tree in the Newnham gardens. It was soon up-rooted, probably by a Tory undergraduate. In its place, W.E. Gladstone presented an oak from the family estate at Hawarden, which still flourishes.
In the course of the 1890s, Helen, taking turns with her siblings had to spend time as the ‘daughter at home’, at the beck and call of her now ageing and increasingly frail parents; and at the beginning of 1896, with great regret, decided she had to move home for what remained of their lives. Then in 1901 she became Warden of the Women’s University Settlement in Southwark. This was essentially a charitable enterprise, which tried to organise help, support and communal activities for slum families, while giving the gently brought-up young women students real experience of the lives of the poor. With her own devout Anglican upbringing, Helen was wholly committed to the objectives of the enterprise, but found the organisational work much less congenial, standing down after five years.
