Dorothy May Meads

Dorothy May Meads (21 December 1891 – 20 October 1958) was a British historian and the principal of Bishop Otter College which is now the University of Chichester. She conducted the first major study of early women's education.

Early life and education Meads was born in 1891. Her mother was Annie and her father, Charles Walter Gladish, ran Gladish & Sons. After she completed her schooling at Stoneygate College in Leicester she won a scholarship that enabled her to be the first person from her family to attend university. She went to University College, Nottingham, to read history. She graduated with a degree awarded by the University of London and holding a scholarship for a master's degree. During her time at the university she was a leading light of the student's union creating the union's first handbook and helping with the student magazine. Her fellow students, including her future husband, jovially created a court where she was found guilty of "despotism in Union affairs". Fanny Trevor had been the first Lady Principal.

She had ambitious plans and the college estate expanded. A gym was built that assisted in teaching physical education which was one of her new courses that including gardening and craft.

Personal life She married John Arthur Meads whom she had met at university in 1917. He joined the Sherwood Foresters and gained a Military Cross. He was killed nine months after their marriage and she resigned from teaching for some years.