Mary Clara Dawes

Mary Clara Dawes (1862–1939) was the first woman in the United Kingdom to receive a Master of Arts degree, gaining her MA in classics from the University of London in 1884.

Early life and education Mary Clara Dawes was born in 1862 in Surbiton, the daughter of the Rev. John Samuel Dawes and his wife Anna Sophia Elizabeth Blasius, daughter of the surgeon Ernst Blasius, professor at the University of Halle. She was educated at home by her father, schoolmaster and proprietor of Newton House school. In January 1879 she passed the matriculation examination in Classics at Girton College, Cambridge. In 1882 she passed the Classical Tripos in class III division 1.

Dawes passed the BA examination at the University of London with Honours in 1883, when she came top of the second class, and becoming one of only fifty women at that point to achieve the BA. In the same year she was awarded the 'Professors' Scholarship' by Bedford College, London, who noted this as the first time in "some years" that "a candidate of sufficient merit for this Scholarship [had] presented herself." In 1884 she received her MA, coming fourth in the list of classics, ancient history and modern history students receiving their master's degree that year.

Teaching career At the time of her graduation, Dawes was the classics teacher at Maida Vale High School. By 1914 she was running the 'Weybridge Ladies' School' also called Heathlands, in Weybridge, along with her sister. She demonstrated a particular interest in teaching ancient languages through modern pronunciation, translating her sister's book on the subject of teaching ancient Greek into modern Greek, She was particularly concerned that Latin should be taught not as a 'dead' language. The proposal was not adopted. She died in 1939.