Rachel Scott

Rachel Scott (born Rachel Susan Cook; 8 March 1848 – 27 November 1905) Her education was at St Andrew's senior school, Madras College; by a private tutor; and then as one of the first six female students enrolled at the College for Women at Benslow House in Hitchin, England, which later became the University of Cambridge's Girton College, with Louisa Innes Lumsden. At this time, such women graduates were "rather special people ... exceptionally able, determined, ambitious". In 1873, Cook "graduated" as one of the first women at the University of Cambridge with honours in the classic Tripos, at second class.

This achievement was notable given the barriers women faced in higher education during the period. Alongside Sarah Woodhead and Louisa Innes Lumsden, Cook was later described as one of the "Girton pioneers." Contemporary accounts often emphasised her personal presence as well as her intellectual abilities, though such descriptions reflect the conventions of the period rather than her educational achievements. George Eliot described her as "sylphlike", and the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, and her obituary said that "there still remains in the minds of those who knew her then a memorable picture of her uncommonness, her dramatic instinct and critical quickness, and her eagerness and radiance of mind". as well as a guide to pictures in the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition of 1887.

In collaboration with her husband, she contributed literary criticism and commentary to the Manchester Guardian, where she supported women's suffrage and broader social reform.