Ethel Strudwick

Ethel Strudwick (3 April 1880 – 15 August 1954) was a British headteacher and Liberal Party activist.

Strudwick was born in Fulham, the daughter of John and Harriet Strudwick, her father being a prominent Pre-Raphaelite artist. She was educated at Queen Elizabeth's School in West Kensington, then won a scholarship to Bedford College, London (now Royal Holloway, University of London), where she completed an honours degree in classics. She became a schoolteacher, teaching classics at the Laurels School in Rugby, but soon returned to Bedford College. There, she completed an MA, and taught classics, before becoming head of its Latin department.

Strudwick left the college in 1913, when she was appointed as headteacher of the City of London School for Girls. She ran the school through World War I, and after the war expanded the school's curriculum by building a physics laboratory, and encouraging pupils to undertake social work in south London. In 1921, she was also appointed to the Senate of the University of London.

Strudwick became increasingly involved with national bodies, serving as president of the Association of Headmistresses from 1931 to 1933, founding president of the British Federation of Business and Professional Women in 1937, and joined the council of the Girls' Public Day School Trust in 1948. In 1943, she was elected to the national council of the Liberal Party, and she was president of the Women's Liberal Federation for a year from 1949.

Strudwick was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1936, and a Commander in 1948. She retired that year.