Lynda Grier

rdf:langString Lynda Grier

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rdf:langString Lynda Grier, CBE (3 May 1880 – 21 August 1967) was a British educational administrator, policy advisor, and the principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, from 1921 to 1945. Born in Staffordshire, Grier was profoundly deaf as a child, which resulted in her lack of formal education. When she and her mother, after her father's death, moved to Cambridge, Grier obtained permission to attend lectures at Newnham College as an external student. In order to enroll formally, she had to teach herself basic math and languages to fill the gaps in her prior reading education. Graduating in 1908, she became an assistant teacher at Newnham and in 1913 was promoted to assistant lecturer. In 1915, she transferred to the University of Leeds, where she taught economics until the war ended. In 1921, Grier was appointed as the principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and worked on the overhaul of the college to meet post-war educational requirements. She served on many commissions and committees for the church and government to improve British pedagogy and educational policy. She was involved in some of the most important educational reforms in the interwar period and was one of the authors of both the Hadow Reports and the Spens Report. She became the first woman to serve on Oxford's Hebdomadal Council in 1926. Retiring as principal in 1945, she went abroad to China on behalf of the British Council in 1947. As the post for the Council representative in Shanghai was vacant, she was invited to take the post. Serving from 1948 to 1950, she remained in abroad, traveling widely to evaluate education in the country in spite of the dangers of the Chinese Communist Revolution. She was honoured as a Commander in the Order of the British Empier in 1951 and in 1953, was the first Cambridge-educated woman to receive an honorary degree from the university. She died in 1967 and is remembered for her work in developing women's education and education policy in Britain.