Bedford High School

Megaw was awarded a Hertha Ayrton Research Fellowship, which enabled her to spend the 1934/1935 year as a postdoctoral researcher with Herman Mark at the University of Vienna, and the following year with Francis Simon at the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford. Between 1936 and 1943, she taught at Bedford High School and then at Bradford Girls Grammar... 

Department. The first of these was Cecilie Mary French,59 who was born on 23 October 1915 in London. She was educated at Walthamstow Girls County High School and obtained her B.Sc. in chemistry from UCL in 1937. From 1938 to 1939, French was a Demonstrator in Chemistry at UCL and she also undertook research with Christopher Ingold60 and Cecil Wilson, leading to her Ph.D. in 1940. That year, she took a position as a Research Chemist with Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) Ltd., but later the same year accepted an appointment as Demonstrator and Assistant Lecturer in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry at Bedford College. 

Helen Kemp Archbold,84 born in 1899, was educated at Clifton High School for Girls, Bristol, and entered Bedford College in 1917. Graduating in 1921, she obtained one of the places reserved for women in Jocelyn Thorpe s organic chemistry... 

Dorothy Hall15 was born on 20 March 1920 in Walthamstow. Daughter of F. H. Hall, a company director, she was educated at Wanstead County High School. She followed the same path as Jamieson, with a B.Sc. at Bedford in 1941, and completed a Ph.D. with Turner in 1944. Again, like Jamieson, she was promoted first to Assistant Lecturer, then Lecturer, and finally to a Readership in 1957. Hall was author or co-author of 32 publications, mostly with Turner, and a few with Lesslie or Jamieson as co-authors. She married Michael Hargreaves on 21 December 1957 and had one son. Hall retired in the mid-1980s. 

So much has been forgotten of the early history of the London women s colleges. The initial role of Queen s College has been overlooked, in part by its relegation to high school status by its blinkered and conservative administrators. With Bedford now... 

The first woman staff member was Nellie Walker.34 The daughter of William Walker, she was educated at Dundee High School and entered University College, Dundee, in 1908 at age 17. She obtained an M.A. (St. Andrews) in 1911 and a B.Sc. (St. Andrews) in 1913. For the next 2 years she was a research scholar, and then briefly in 1915 undertook war work with the Royal Society War Committee. Later that year, she obtained a position as Demonstrator in Chemistry at Bedford College. In 1918, she returned to Dundee, where she completed a Ph.D. (St. Andrews) in 1920. 

Dougal s replacement in 1910 was Margaret Le Pla.83 Le Pla, born on 17 April 1885, the daughter of Henry Le Pla, a Nonconformist Minister at Southall, Middlesex, was educated at South Hampstead High School (a GPDSC school). After graduation from Bedford in 1906, she was appointed Demonstrator in Chemistry and also Research Assistant to James Spencer. 

One of the first beneficiaries of ICI s reversal of its opposition to women researchers was Jesse Dorehill Crampton Mole.97 Mole, daughter of Ernest Mole, a retired police officer, was educated at Notre Dame High School, Clapham, and the City of London School for Girls. She entered Bedford in 1934, graduating with a B.Sc. in chemistry in 1936. 

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