Constance Maynard

Constance Louisa Maynard (19 February 1849 – 26 March 1935) was the first principal of Westfield College (1882–1913) and a pioneer of women's education. She was the first woman to read Moral Sciences (philosophy) at the University of Cambridge.

Early life and education Constance Maynard was born on 9 February 1849 at 17 Park Terrace in Highbury, Middlesex to an upper-middle-class family. She was one of four daughters and two sons of Louisa (née Hillyard) (1806-1878) and Henry Maynard (1800-1888) a South African merchant. Her mother had Huguenot ancestry. She grew up in Hawkhurst, Kent, in a house named Oakfield. Her two brothers attended boarding school, while she and her sisters were educated at home by governesses, except for one year at Belstead School in Suffolk. Studies of Maynard's autobiography reveal that she suppressed her carnal desires to "achieve salvation".

In 1872 at the age of 23, Constance Maynard enrolled at Hitchin College for women which was affiliated with the University of Cambridge and later became Girton College in 1873. She was the first woman to study the Moral Sciences tripos and in 1875 received the equivalent of a second class honours degree.

Career After leaving Girton (due to a temporary crisis in the family business), Maynard was permitted to accept an invitation from the Assistant Mistress of Cheltenham Ladies' College, Frances Dove, to join their staff. In 1877 she left with her colleague and partner Louisa Lumsden to establish St Leonard's School, at St Andrews, where Lumsden was head. During her three years (1877–1880) there, she rejected offers of headships, including that of her former school Belstead.

In October 1882 Westfield College opened in two private houses in Hampstead. It was one of the first higher education institutions for women in England and one of the first in which women could gain degrees.

Personal life Maynard was in a long-term relationship with fellow educational reformer and suffragist Louisa Lumsden. They referred to each other as wife and husband. She refused a marriage proposal from Scottish Minister Dr James Robertson. Maynard's diaries show a struggle to articulate the terms with which to express the love she felt for her students, and some scholars have accused her of abusing her power in pursuing relationships with them.

In 1888 Maynard adopted a child through a friend in the Salvation Army. At the time of her adoption Stephanë Anthon, known as Effie, was eight years old, and the relationship between them was a difficult one. Whilst Maynard continued to support Effie until the latter's death from tuberculosis in 1915, it is detailed in her diaries as a period of disappointment.

Religious movements such as the Salvation Army figured prominently in Maynard's life. She was elected as old students' representative to the governing body of Girton College and served from 1897 to about 1905 on the council of the Church Schools' Society.

Later life and death After her retirement, Maynard spent her time travelling, receiving visitors, reading and writing. She wrote poetry, religious lectures and pamphlets of a moral or spiritual nature.

When the papers were deposited with Westfield College Archives in 1948, they were accompanied by a letter from Catherine B. Firth which stated that "Miss Gray, the original convener of the literary executors, judged it proper (despite the strongest remonstrances!) to destroy several Green-books (and to tear out pages of the autobiography) so bereaving the value of a series of intimate records which came from 1886 to 1935, a historical crime indeed! It is, of course, obvious to anyone who reads carefully, especially to anyone who has also personal knowledge of the people concerned (or most of them) for what reasons the murder was done – rather particularly obvious in regard to the most important point.

Publications

Between College Terms, 1910 The Religious Training of Immaturity, National Sunday School Union, 1923 The Kingdom of Heaven is like..., RTS, 1924 We Women. A Golden Hope, Morgan and Scott, 1924 The Perfect Law of Liberty, RTS, 1925 Dora Greenwell: a prophet for our own time on the battleground of our faith, 1926 Progressive Creation, SPCK, 1927 Then shall we Know, SPCK, 1927 The Prophet Daniel and other essays, Morgan and Scott 1927