Ethel Hurlbatt

Ethel Hurlbatt (1 July 1866 – 22 March 1934) was an English educator and a promoter of women’s entrance into the professions. She is recognised for her work in women's education combined with loyalty to the institutions she worked for. She was Principal of Bedford College, University of London, and later Warden of Royal Victoria College, the women's college of McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which had opened in 1899.

Early life Hurlbatt was born in Bickley, Kent, England, on 1 July 1866. Her parents were Charles Hurlbatt, a mining engineer, and Sophia Margaret Hurlbatt . She was one of seven children.

Education Hurlbatt was educated privately and then read modern history at Somerville College, Oxford, from 1888 to 1892 gaining second class. Her BA and MA were conferred by Trinity College, Dublin in 1905, as Oxford allowed women to sit the examinations but did not confer degrees on women at that time. She did however receive an honorary MA from the University of Oxford in 1925. the women’s residence of the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire in Cardiff and now part of Cardiff University. She was also honorary secretary for the Association for Promoting the Education of Women, was a member of the Cardiff Charity Organisation Society and her name her name features in documents of the Welsh Union of the Women’s Liberal Association (WUWLA). In 1898, Hurlbatt became principal of the London women's college, Bedford College, but resigned in 1906 due to ill health. Her service to the college was recognized in 1930 when she received an honorary LLD from McGill.

During World War I, Hurlbatt served as chairwoman of the Women’s War Registry Committee in Montreal.

Later life and death During her retirement Hurlbatt travelled widely pursuing her interest in sketching. In the year before she died she had several heart attacks, complicated by influenza. Hurlbatt died on 22 March 1934 in Tours, France.