Avery and
Ida Woodward
Last international Women's Day, I shared with you as much of the story of Gertrude Hutton that I knew. Today, on this International
Women’s Day, 2023, what better way to celebrate achievement than to follow the
lives and careers of sisters who were born in Loughborough?
Although there were
three sisters, and all were academically gifted, we will tell the story of just two
of them, the oldest sister, Avery, and the youngest sister, Ida.
Information
about middle sister Ella, born in Loughborough in October 1889, has been hard
to come by, and the only certain fact is that in 1911 she was a student of
natural sciences at University of Cambridge, and was boarding at 19 Leigham
Street, Plymouth with several other students – Alice Frieda Cozens-Hardy
Evershed, and Dorothy Gooch Butler. Annie Carter is the housekeeper, but the
record is signed by a Mrs Hocking along with Annie Carter. The only other
mentions found of an Ella Woodward who might be this sister, are in the 1939
Register, where she is listed as an incapacitated resident at the Wilts County
Mental Hospital, and a possible death in quarter three of 1848, registered in
Devizes.
Avery’s story
Avery
Woodward was born to parents Robert Wallace Woodward (born 4 February 1860 in
Port Louis, Mauritius, died 28 March 1942 in Winterbourne Stoke, Salisbury),
and Ella Mary Glanville (born May 1862 in Southampton, died 22 February 1939 in
Winterbourne Stoke, Salisbury). Avery was born on 27 June 1888, in Loughborough
where her father was a teacher at the Loughborough Grammar School, and the
family are possibly living at 106 Park Road. By 1898, the family which now
included two further daughters – Ella, born October 1889, and Ida, born April
1893 - had moved to Nottingham, where father Robert was a teacher at Nottingham High School. On the 1901 census, the family are living on either Main Street
Basford, or Main Street Gedling.
 |
| 106 Park Road |
Avery was
home-schooled, and this stood her in good stead as she did well academically,
and had a string of accolades to her name. In October 1903, Avery was the top
junior girl in the Oxford local examinations. She was bracketed 6th in the
First Class, and obtained the £10 scholarship offered by the Oxford delegates. In
March 1904 she gained a prize in the Cambridge local exams – best Junior Girl,
Nottingham, for which the prize was £8. This was followed a year later when in
March 1905 Avery won a £12 prize for being best senior girl in the Cambridge
Local Examinations and Lecture Syndicate, and four months after that, in July
1905 when she passed the matriculation at London University from the University
College of Nottingham with a First Division result. In October 1905, Avery was
successful in the exams at University of London and won a scholarship of £40
for two years, awarded by the University of London, and gained a university
exhibition for two years, for University College Nottingham.
In August
1906, London University published the results of its honours list for
intermediate exams in the arts and
sciences. Avery Woodward was awarded second class in the intermediate arts:
Greek. This was followed by more success, when in December 1908 Avery passed
her BA Examination in Classics, with a Second Class Honours, from Newnham
College and University College, Nottingham.
As a student
with Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1910, Avery gained a first-class pass in
part 2 of the Classical Tripos [NOTE 1]. An article which appeared in the ‘Nottingham Evening
Post’ says:
‘She was
educated at home, and attended classes at the University College, Nottingham.
She gained a Pfieffer Scholarship at Girton College, which she relinquished on
gaining a Gilchrist Scholarship of £50 a year at the London University, and the
Nottingham Girls’ Higher Education Exhibition. At Newnham she obtained a
first-class in all the college examinations, and on gaining a first-class in
the Classical Tripos (part 1) in 1909, won the Arthur Hugh Clough Scholarship
of £40 a year, awarded to the best Newnham student of the year.”
However, a
later article, in 1913, relating to Avery’s sister Ida, says the following:
“Her [i.e. Ida’s] elder sister [i.e. Avery] was scholar of Newnham College,
[and] took a First Class in the Chemical Tripos three years ago.”
On the 1911
census return, Avery is lodging at 20 Quentin Road, Lewisham, where she is
listed as an assistant teacher with a Girls’ Public Day School Trust. She is probably
renting rooms in the house, as other occupants of the property are listed as
Mildred Ethel Martin, a 32-year-old Assistant Mistress in the Blackheath High
School, who is occupying two rooms; Muriel Howard Spalding, a 30-year-old lodger
occupying two rooms, who was a lecturer in Physical Education & [?] at
Avery Hill Training College [NOTE 2] in Eltham; and Annie Bertha Schobert, a 31-year-old
teacher with the Girls’ Public Day School Trust was also lodging at No.20 – presumably, the same trust as Avery was with. The keeper of the lodging house was the 61-year-old
widow, Martha Steer.
In December
1912, Avery Woodward, of Nottingham, attended a conference of the Classical
Association, which was being held at Sheffield University, and which was the
Association’s first outing to a Yorkshire University.
There is now
a huge gap in the information for Avery, and the 1921 census is still hard for me to
access.
However, following
such success in her education, in 1925, Avery has an article published in ‘Aberystwyth
Studies’, No.7, pp.19-35. The title of this article was ‘The descriptive
use of dactyls’. [NOTE 3]
The title page of this journal carries the statement “By Members of the
University College of Wales” so it’s probably safe to assume that at the time
she wrote the article, Avery was employed at this college. This college was the
first university college in Wales, and at its time of opening in 1872, it was
the first university institution in Wales to offer courses in amongst other
things, Comparative Philology. To offer such a course requires teachers, so
perhaps Avery was a teacher in this area, as it is certainly one that she is
expert in. [NOTE 4] Edith Gadsby, who became the wife of Bernard Nixon Wale, had attended the college in Aberystwyth only about 20 years after it had been established.
Again,
another information gap, but in 1934 Avery has an article published in the journal ‘Greece
& Rome’, Vol.3, No.8 (Feb. 1934), pp.105-112. The title is ‘Evidence
for Greek pronunciation’, and it begins:
“In 1844,
G.J. Pennington, in ‘An Essay on the pronunciation of the Greek Language’,
wrote: “And this is the great difficulty which I have always found in
discussing the point with my own countrymen, that they are prejudiced, not by
theory, for that may be stated and refuted, but by a matter of taste, though
mistaken taste, from which it is not easy to obtain a fair hearing.” There is
still much truth in this; but the position is changed …”
Although there
is no evidence in this article of Avery’s work place, by 1935, she is associated
with Royal Holloway College, Englefield Green, Surrey [NOTE
5], and is listed in its
proceedings as a member of the American Philological Association.
On 22
February 1939, Ella Mary Woodward, wife of Robert Wallace Woodward, both of
Staddles, Church Street, Winterbourne Stoke, Salisbury, and mother of Avery,
Ella, and Ida, died, at 74 Campbell Road Salisbury. Probate was granted on 10
June 1939 to daughter Avery. She left £543 15s 4d.. At the time of the 1939
Register (September), Avery is living at Staddles with her father Robert, and
is listed as a university lecturer, although the subject is unclear.
The death of
Avery and Ida’s mother was followed in March 1942 by the death of their father.
Location details are the same as for Ella, so he lived at Staddles, Church
Street, Winterbourne Stoke, Salisbury, and died at 74 Campbell Road Salisbury. However,
probate was granted on 8 May 1942, to both Avery and her sister Ida. Effects
were £3977 6s. 3d.. A report in the ‘Nottingham Evening Post’ suggests
that the gross was £3,977 and the net was £3,929.
Again, a
further huge gap in information, for the next reference we have is for 1949,
when Avery is found to be on the Senate of London University (of which Royal Holloway
College was a part); she was a Convocation Member of the Arts department; she
was on the committee for the Council of External Students; she was part of the
Goldsmith’s College Delegacy; she was a teacher in classics (the Greek and
Latin languages and literature) at the Royal Holloway College; Avery was
Chairman of the Board of Study of Philology; and she was a Reader in Classics.
She had also, at some point, gained an MA.
In May 1950, Avery,
of the Royal Holloway College, gave her presidential address at a meeting of
the Central Council of the Association of University Teachers at Swansea
College, and during 1952, having been a member of the American Philological
Association since 1935, represented the Society at the Seventh International
Congress of Linguistics in London . In 1953, Avery subscribed to a book – ‘Studies
in romance philology and French literature’ - which was presented to John
Orr [NOTE
6], by pupils, colleagues,
and friends. Avery is listed as being from Royal Holloway College, Englefield
Green, Surrey.
Ida’s
story
Ida Woodward
was born to parents Robert Wallace Woodward and his wife Ella Mary Glanville,
on 27 April 1893. In 1891 the family were living at 7 Middleton Place, but by
1895 they were living at 16 Herrick Road: wherever they were in Loughborough at
the time of Ida’s birth, this was definitely in Loughborough as father, Robert,
was a teacher at the Loughborough Grammar School. By 1898, the family had moved
to Nottingham, where father, Robert was a teacher at Nottingham High School.
 |
| 7 Middleton Place |
Like her
older sister, Avery, Ida was academically successful, and in 1906, being privately
educated (perhaps like Avery, home-schooled?) Ida won the Junior Mathematics
Prize, donated by Sir Charles Seely, in the Oxford local exams. No monetary
value was reported. In 1911, Ida, listed as a student, is living with her
parents, Robert - who was an Assistant Master at Nottingham High School - and Ella,
at Fairholme, Mecklenburg Road, Nottingham.
In June 1913,
Ida was a student with Girton College, Cambridge, and gained a First in the
Mathematical Tripos, Part 1. As with the story of Avery Woodward, there are
huge gaps in the information found regarding Ida. I have been unable to
establish if or when Ida completed her studies with Girton College, or if, perhaps
these were interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. I have also wondered,
but been unable to establish for definite, if perhaps she completed her studies
at Leeds University.
My reason for
even considering this is the appearance of the name ‘Ida Woodward’ in the
sixteenth report of the Leeds University, for 1919-20. In ‘Appendix C: Appointments
gained by students, 1918-19’, an entry reads:
‘Ida Woodward, B.Sc., Assistant
Mistress, Secondary School, Castleford [Leeds]’
This follows
from the sighting of a record in ‘The Suffragette’ of December 1913, for
a donation of 1s. made by a Miss Woodward, under the heading of ‘Leeds’. Of
course, I could be barking up completely the wrong tree here, and access to the
1921 census returns might clear the matter up. Added to this is the knowledge
that William Henry Bragg (later ‘Sir’) moved after the First World War, from
Leeds University, firstly to University College
London, and then to the Royal Institution in London, and it is known that Ida
was most certainly at the Royal Institution, working as part of William Henry
Bragg’s group of 18 students, 11 of whom were women. [NOTE
7]
In 1923 Ida was the sole author of a paper, ‘XC. An investigation of the structure of the halogen salts based on their compressibility’ which was published in ‘The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Series 6’
 |
| Extract from Ida's 1923 paper |
Whilst at the
Royal Institution, probably between 1930 and 1939, Ida supported and worked
collaboratively with John. Monteath Robertson, with whom she wrote a number of papers.
Although he left the institution in 1939, to join Sheffield University, their joint
authorship of scientific papers continued. I have listed some of Ida’s papers
below, but would like to highlight this one from 1941, for its author’s concerns:
Ida was joint
author with A. R. Ubbelohde of a paper on the ‘Structure and thermal
properties associated with some hydrogen bonds in crystals IV. Isotope effects
in some acid phosphates’, which was published in the ‘Proceedings of the
Royal Society of London’. Interestingly, as a peer-reviewed paper, the
authors ask the referee (Ralph Howard Fowler) [NOTE 8] if there is any information contained
in the paper which is likely to be of value to the enemy – a stark reminder that
this research was taking place during the time of world war.
It is very likely
that in 1946 Ida moves to Queen’s University, Belfast, as her friend, Nellie
Dale, from the Royal Institution, writes to Henry Barcroft [NOTE
9] at Queen’s University,
asking him to make the acquaintance of Ida.
Throughout
her time at Queen’s Ida continued to write papers, with a variety of joint
authors – A. R. Ubbelohde, K. Gallagher, J. McC, Pollock, and Robert J. Magee,
to name but a few – much of which was published in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal
Society of London’, but also in other journals like ‘Acta
Crystallographica’ and ‘Talanta’. She also lectured in chemistry, and it has been said that during lectures she would share anecdotes about working with William Bragg and Ernest Rutherford, the latter having been President of the Royal Society from 1925-1930 [NOTE 10].
Avery and
Ida’s later story
By 1953, the
story of Avery and Ida Woodward becomes more intertwined, as in that year, Avery
retired from her position as Reader in Classics at the Royal Holloway College,
and moved to Belfast to live with Ida, who was still working at Queen’s University. Once
settled in Ireland, Avery joined the Classical Society of Northern Ireland, and
gave her first lecture to the Society in November 1955, the subject of which
was the pronunciation of Greek in Western Europe, a topic upon which she was an
expert.
Of course,
whilst Avery was retired, sister Ida, being a few years younger than her sibling,
continued to work at Queen’s University in Belfast, and continued to author
papers. In 1955, Ida was a joint author on a paper on the effects of
temperature on some hydrogen-bond networks in crystals and in 1956 she was a
joint author on a paper about hydrogen bonds in crystals in the 'Proceedings of
the Royal Society, London'. In 1962 Ida and her work were mentioned a number of
times in a book called ‘Fifty Years of X-Ray Diffraction’. These mentions were particularly
in relation to her being one of the ‘original Royal Institution research
workers’ and that she was a mathematician.
The next
event in the lives of the two spinster sisters that has come to light, is that
they appear to have gone on a two-week cruise which included visiting Madeira
and Tenerife. On 23 March 1960, they departed from Southampton, and travelled
first class, on a ship called Venus, which was part of the “Det Bergenske
Dampskibsselskab” shipping line. They returned to Southampton on 4 April 1960,
again on the Venus, but which this time was on the “Messrs Thomas Meadowes and
Company Ltd.”. Records of both journeys give their address as 13 Broughton
Park, Belfast 6, and Avery’s occupation was listed as ‘nil’ – so she was
retired – whilst Ida was listed as being a university lecturer.
The final
events tracked down are the death of the two sisters. Avery died on 17
September 1977, and at the time of her death she was still living at 13
Broughton Park, Ravenhill Road, Belfast. Probate was granted on 12 May 1978, but
to whom is not known. Effects were £28,831. Sister, Ida, died on 22 October
1983, at Deramore House Private Nursing Home, which was at 148 Malone Road, in
Belfast, and her funeral service was held at the Belfast City Crematorium at
2pm on Monday 31 October. Probate was granted on 16 February 1984, but to whom
is not known. Effects were £91,416.
____________________________________
NOTES
NOTE 1 – for an explanation of the Tripos examinations
that emerged from Cambridge University, I refer you to Wikipedia
NOTE 2 – “Avery Hill College was established in 1906 by
the London County Council as a residential female teacher training college. The
mansion at Avery Hill, Eltham had been purchased by London County Council in
1902. It had previously been the home of Colonel John Thomas North and his
family, who had spent [a lot of money on renovating and adding to the property
to create a large Italianate mansion. On his death in 1896 his widow sold the
property, which was eventually bought by London County Council for [a sum of
money]. The College opened in 1906 with 45 resident and 115 day students. Most
of the students were between 18 and 21 and came from London, and had already
worked as pupil-teachers. The syllabus included nature study, drawing, music
and the theory of education as well as the more usual academic subjects.
Science was not taught until the 1930s as so few of the girls had been taught
the subject at school. Games included tennis, hockey, cricket and netball, and
student societies were established to organise social events and activities. By
1908 the College had purchased nearby Southwood House and a school building in
Deansfield Road which were converted to hostels. Numbers of applicants to the
College continued to rise, and four new halls of residence were built in the
grounds of Southwood House, the last opening in 1916. During the First World War
Roper Hall became a convalescent home for soldiers, but the College remained
open.” From: Avery Hill College Identity Statement
NOTE 3 – Dactyl – According to Wikipedia, a dactyl is a
foot in poetic meter. In quantitative verse, often used in Greek or Latin, a
dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short syllables, as determined by
syllable weight. The best-known use of dactylic verse is in the epics
attributed to the Greek poet Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. In accentual
verse, often used in English, a dactyl is a stressed syllable followed by two
unstressed syllables—the opposite is the anapaest (two unstressed followed by a
stressed syllable).
NOTE 4 – Philology - This subject, according to the ‘Encyclopaedia
Britannica’, is the study of the history of language, and includes the
historical study of literary texts.
NOTE 5 – Royal Holloway College was formed from two
colleges which were founded by social pioneers, Elizabeth Jesser Reid and
Thomas Holloway, which were some of the first places in Britain where women
could access higher education.
NOTE 6 – John Orr is described by Wikipedia as a ‘scholar
of French who had worked at East London College in the University of London. His archives are held at Edinburgh University where he worked
from 1933-1954.
NOTE 7 - In 2008, Ida Woodward is mentioned in a book by Marlene
and Geoff Rayner-Canham, called ‘Chemistry was their life: pioneer British
women chemists, 1880-1949’. It is recorded in a chapter on women
crystallographers that Ida was one of William Henry Bragg’s group of 18
students, 11 of whom were women. After the First World War, Bragg moved from
his post of professor at Leeds University, firstly to University College London, and then to the
Royal Institution in London. Apparently, crystallography was an attractive science
for women to be involved in, and one reason put forward was that Bragg, and his
son, William Lawrence, provided a women-friendly environment. It has, however,
also been suggested that X-ray crystallography was popular with women scientists
as it required dedication and attention to detail.
NOTE 8 – Ralph Howard Fowler was a physicist and astronomer
who also worked on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. During the Frist World War, after being injured in Gallipoli, he became part of a group of scientists engaged in developing better techniques for targeting Zeppelins. In 1941 I think he
was at Cambridge. but saw active service during the Second World War, and he was knighted in 1942.
NOTE 9 – Henry Barcroft was a highly distinguished physiologist,
who in 1935 was appointed Dunville Professor of Physiology at Queen’s University,
Belfast, a post he held until he moved to St Thomas’s Hospital in London in
1948. He would therefore have been at Queen’s when Ida arrived in 1946.
NOTE 10 - Short biography of Ernest Rutherford.
____________________________________
References
to Ida’s work …
In 1957, Professor
A. R. Ubbelohde, who worked on crystallography, particularly the study of
crystal transformations, isotope effects, and thermal vibrations, at Queen’s
with Ida, moved to London. In his 1962 book, ’50 years of X-ray diffraction’,
Ewald notes that Ida, a mathematician, had been one of the original Royal
Institution researchers, who had studied the whole range of transformations of
single crystals of potassium nitrate, where she had worked with A. R.
Ubbelohde. They worked in the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory that had been established
and equipped by Dr Ludwig Mon, and was opened by the Prince of Wales (later
Edward VII) in December 1896. Of her work with J. M. Robertson, Ewald notes,
“[Robertson] spent altogether some twelve years in the D.F. Laboratory, [and]
carried out a series of brilliant investigations of the crystal structures of
aromatic compounds, beginning with naphthalene, anthracene, resorcinol, durene
and benzophenone; and going on, partly with the later collaboration of Ida
Woodward, to oxalic acid dihydrate, the phthalocyanines and the dibenzyl
series, including stilbene, tolane, trans- and cis-azobenzene.” Ubbelohde and
Robertson also collaborated. Ewald goes on to say that around 1942: “Shortly
before Sir William’s [William Bragg had by now been knighted] death in 1942
there began in the laboratories and elsewhere the studies of diffuse scattering
by the thermal waves in crystals and of the anomalous scattering in type I
diamonds which interested him so much that he arranged a Royal Society
Discussion on the subject. These researches were continued during .the
subsequent years when first Sir Henry Dale and then Professor E. Rideal was
Director of the D.F. Laboratory. At the same time Miss Woodward and A. R.
Ubbelohde were studying the subcrystalline changes in structure of Rochelle
salt and potassium dihydrogen phosphate in their ferroelectric regions, and
studies of texture and extinction were being made by means of Laue and
divergent-beam photographs.”
____________________________________
A
selection of Ida’s publications
1923 – Ida was
the sole author of a paper, ‘XC. An investigation of the structure of the
halogen salts based on their compressibility’ which was published in ‘The
London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science,
Series 6’
1935 – Ida was
joint author with John Monteath Robertson and Mata Prasad of a paper on ‘X-ray
analysis of the dibenzyl series III – The structure of stilbene, tolane, and azobenzene’
published in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society of London’
1936 - Ida was
joint author with J. Monteath Robertson of a paper ‘The structure of the
carboxyl group. A quantitative investigation of oxalic acid dihydrate by Fourier
synthesis from the X-ray crystal data’ which was published in the ‘Journal
of the Chemical Society’
1937 – Ida was
joint author with J. Monteath Robertson of a paper ‘An X-ray study of the
phthalocyanines. Part III. Quantitative structure determination of nickel
phthalocyanine’ which was published in the ‘Journal of the Chemical
Society’
1939 – Ida was
joint author with J. J. de Lange and
John Monteath Robertson of a paper on ‘X-ray crystal analysis of
trans-azobenzene’, which was published in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal
Society of London’
1940 - Ida was
joint author with J. Monteath Robertson of a paper ‘An X-ray study of the
phthalocyanines. Part IV. Direct quantitative analysis of the platinum compound’
which was published in the ‘Journal of the Chemical Society’
1940 – Ida was
the sole author of a paper ‘X-ray studies of the porphins’ which was
published in the ‘Journal of the Chemical Society’
1940 – Ida was
joint author with Kathleen Yardley Lonsdale and John Monteath Robertson of a
paper on ‘Structure and molecular anisotropy of sorbic acid, CH3.CH:CH.CH:CH.COOH’,
published in ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society A’
In 1941 Ida
Woodward was a joint author (with Kathleen Lonsdale and J. Monteath Robertson)
on ‘Structure and magnetic anisotropy of sorbic acid’, published in the ‘Proceedings
of the Royal Society, London, Series A’, 178, pg. 43
1942 - Ida
was joint author with A. R. Ubbelohde of a paper on the ‘Structure and
thermal properties associated V. Thermal expansion of phthalocyanines and
porphins’, which was published in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society of
London’.
1944 - Ida
was joint author with A. R. Ubbelohde of a paper on the ‘Structure and
thermal properties of crystals VI. The role of hydrogen bonds in Rochelle salt’,
which was published in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society of London’.
1947 - Ida
was joint author with A. R. Ubbelohde of a paper on the ‘Structure and
thermal properties associated with some hydrogen bonds in crystals VII.
Behaviour of KH2PO4 and KH2A SO4 on cooling’, which published in the ‘Proceedings
of the Royal Society: A’.
1955 – Ida,
of Queen’s University, Belfast, was joint author with K. Gallagher and A. R.
Ubbelohde of a paper on ‘Effects of temperature on some hydrogen-bond networks
in crystals’ published in ‘Acta Crystallographica’
1956 – Ida,
of Queen’s University, Belfast, was joint author with J. McC. Pollock, and A.
R. Ubbelohde of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College,
London, of a paper on ‘Hydrogen bonds in crystals X. The isotope effect and
thermal expansion of non-co-operative hydrogen bonds in furoic acid’ which
was published in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A.
Mathematical and Physical Sciences’
1966 – Ida was
joint author with Robert J. Magee of a paper on ‘Structures of the uranyl
8-hydroxyquinolates’ which was published in ‘Talanta’
____________________________________
posted by lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for typos which are all mine!
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