Beatrice Edgell

Beatrice Edgell (26 October 1871 – 10 August 1948) was a British psychologist, researcher and university teacher. She taught at Bedford College in the University of London from 1897 to 1933. She was the first British woman to earn a PhD in psychology and the first British woman to be named a professor of psychology. She was also the first female president of the British Psychological Society, the Aristotelian Society, the Mind Association and the Psychological Division of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Early life and education Edgell was born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England, in 1871, the youngest of six children of Edward Higginson Edgell and his wife, the former Sarah Ann Buckle. Edward Edgell was a bank manager in Tewkesbury. Beatrice Edgell's mother died when her youngest daughter was 11 years old.

She attended Tewkesbury High School for Girls between the ages of 10 and 14. She earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Mental and Moral sciences from the University of London in 1894.

From 1894 to 1897 Edgell taught high school in Sunderland and Blackburn, earning a teaching diploma from the University of London in 1896. In 1897 she returned to study in Aberystwyth, where her alma mater had become part of the University of Wales. In 1898 she earned a BA in philosophy from the University of Wales, followed in 1899 by a Master of Arts degree from the same university.

Career In January 1898 Edgell had begun her university teaching career at Bedford College in London as lecturer in philosophy and head of the department of mental and moral science, which became the department of philosophy and psychology in 1906. When she returned in 1901 from her year's leave of absence at the University of Würzburg, she set up one of Britain's first psychological laboratories at the college. Beatrice Edgell was named professor of psychology in 1927 by the University of London. She was the first female professor of psychology in Britain. She also became the first woman president of the Mind Association in 1927.