Philippa Fawcett

Portrait by Philippa Fawcett, around 1888

Philippa Fawcett (born April 4, 1868 in Brighton , † June 10, 1948 in London ) was a British mathematician and school reformer .

Life

Philippa Fawcett was the only child of suffragette Millicent Garrett Fawcett DBE (1847–1929) and the politician Henry Fawcett (1833–1884). Her aunt, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson VA (1836-1917) and her cousin Louisa Anderson CBE (1873-1943), were well-known doctors.

After the death of her father, she studied mathematics at Bedford College , then until 1887 at University College London and finally at Newnham College, a college of the University of Cambridge . There she was top of the class and became a lecturer . In 1890, she became the first woman to get the highest score on the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos (above the male senior Wrangler). At that time, the title of senior wrangler was only awarded to men, as separate lists were kept for women who had been allowed to participate in the competition since 1881.

From 1902 to 1905 Fawcett worked in South African schools, after her return to the United Kingdom she got a job in the school administration at London County Council (LCC). Like her mother, Philippa Fawcett was an avowed feminist and was involved in the successful struggle for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.

literature

• Rita McWilliams Tullberg: Fawcett, Philippa Garrett (1868-1948). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Philippa Fawcett. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
• Biography at Cambridge University ( memento of March 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), in the Internet Archive at archive.org, as of March 11, 2009, viewed July 17, 2011 (English)