Alice Coleridge

Alice Mary Coleridge (27 March 1846 – 12 February 1907) was a British promoter of girls' schools. She was the instigator of the former Abbots Bromley School for Girls.

Life

Coleridge was born in 1846 in the manor house of Ottery St Mary, East Devon, to Francis George Coleridge and his wife. Alice's mother, Harriet, became mentally ill after giving birth to Alice.

Alice Coleridge, had been greatly influenced by the writer Anna Sewell and her godmother, Charlotte Mary Yonge. Around 1859 Yonge created a literary group of younger girl cousins to write essays and gain advice from Yonge on their writing. Together they created a private magazine called "The Barnacle" in a collaboration that continued until about 1871. This was valuable as this may have been the last generation of girls to be educated at home. Alice was unusual in getting "a boy's education". Alice contributed under the name "Gurgoyle". From the first issue she drew the covers and contributed translations, articles, riddles and verses.

She died in Henfield in 1907. However, the school closed permanently in the summer of 2019 due to financial problems over many years.