The Succession Controversy

Up until Field s resignation, the Chemistry Department had always been in the hands of women chemists. However, her upgraded replacement position of a University Professorship of Chemistry, tenable at the RHC, was advertised in the 15 March 1913 issue of The Times as open to men and women on equivalent terms. Sibyl Widdows (see below) sent a letter to many of the former RHC students expressing her opposition  

Accompanying this letter was a petition, pointing out that of the nine members of the Selection Committee for the post, only one was a woman. Among the members of the Vigilance Committee elected by the Royal Holloway College Association to promote 

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