Dorette Wilkie

Dorette Wilkie born Dorette Wilke (14 June 1867 – 19 January 1930) was a Prussian-born British promoter of women's physical education. She founded the Chelsea College of Physical Education which is now part of the University of Brighton.

Life Wilkie was born in Magdeburg in Prussia in 1867. She came to Britain as a teenager suffering from a curved spine. She enrolled on a physical education course which not only fixed her spinal problem but made her into an exemplar and advocate for physical education. She was able to obtain two years of training in gymnastics at Adolf A. Stempel's facility which she received in exchange for a year of teaching. was part of the South Western Polytechnic in Chelsea.

In 1910 Wilkie and Cecil Sharp were both at Japan–British Exhibition on 9 July 1910 in London where the students demonstrated their dances. Sharp accompanied them on the piano and Wilkie spoke about the importance of 20 minutes of exercise each day. The following month they undertook a similar exhibition in Paris at the International Congress of School Hygiene. Wilkie moved from Chelsea to a cottage in Headley. She died there the following year from breast cancer. In 1947 her college was taken over by Eastbourne Education Authority who moved it to Eastbourne. The college is merged into Brighton University.