Candidates for entrance must pass the College Entrance examination (of the same standard as the university Previous Examination), unless they have already taken equivalent examinations. The greater number read for a tripos, but students may follow special lines of study. As to its university successes—the first tripos to be taken was the Moral Sciences (1874), and here Newnham students at once obtained the highest honours.[473] In 1876 Sir George Humphry,[474] as one of the examiners for the Natural Sciences tripos, when he met his fellow examiners said “I don’t know, gentlemen, who your first is, but my first is a man called Ogle.” The man called Ogle was a Newnham student.[475] In 1883 first classes were obtained in the Second Part of the Classical tripos, but Newnham waited till 1885 for its two first wranglers. In 1890 the University Calendar inserts in its Mathematical tripos list: “P. G. Fawcett, above the Senior Wrangler.” Miss Fawcett obtained (it was reported) several hundred marks above the university senior wrangler Bennett of John’s. It is customary to ring the bell of Great S. Mary’s in honour of this enfant gaté of Cambridge university; but Mr. Bennett stopped the ringing, and a bonfire at Newnham celebrated the occasion. In the History tripos two Firsts were obtained in 1879, and this tripos has frequently been duplicated with another—the Moral Sciences, Modern Languages, Mathematical, Classical, or Law. The first woman to take the two historic triposes, mathematical and classical, together, was Miss E. M. Creak in 1875. The first examinations in the Medieval and Modern Languages tripos were passed in 1886, 1887, and 1888, when Firsts were obtained, and 30% of first classes have been taken in this tripos. Newnham has indeed been remarkable from the beginning for the number of its first class honours in the university lists.
Former Newnham students.
There have been 880 honour students, and the total number of past and present students is 1600.[476] Like the Girtonians, old Newnhamites are to be found engaged in all kinds of work and in every corner of the world, and like Girton they have their large share of the teachers in the County and High schools of the country; the towns which are perhaps most conspicuous for the number of Cambridge ‘graduates’ being Norwich, Exeter, Cambridge, and Birmingham. Among the mathematicians one is lecturer on Physics in the London School of Medicine for Women, another is mathematical lecturer at the Cambridge Training College, a third is warden of the House for Women Students at Liverpool, a fourth (who took the Natural Sciences as a second tripos) is senior physician in a Bombay hospital. Others are lecturers in the Civil Service Department of King’s College London, and others again are teaching in Toronto, Cape Town, the Training College of Cape Colony, in Nova Scotia, the diocesan school at Lahore, and at an Indian mission school; one is assistant investigator in the Labour Department of the Board of Trade, another who was secretary for secondary education in the Transvaal is now Chief Assistant on the Education Committee (Executive Office) of the L.C.C. The classics are engaged as classical tutors in Columbia University, in Trinity College Melbourne, at Mysore, and Cape Colony, at the Girls’ High school at Poona, and as lecturers on history in University College Cardiff, on Method in the Chancery Lane Training school of the L.C.C., as assistant to the Professor of Humanity at Aberdeen, and as members of the educational committees of the Staffordshire County Council and Newcastle Town Council. The moralists have posts as lecturers at Newnham, as Mistress of Method at University College Bristol, and in the training department of the government school for girls at Cairo, as member of the Chiswick education committee, and as sub-warden of the Women’s University Settlement at Southwark; and a senior moralist was first Principal of the Training College Cambridge. The natural scientists lecture on physiology in the London School of Medicine, on chemistry in Holloway College, are to be found in the geological research department of Birmingham University, as Quain student of botany in University College London, and as assistant demonstrator in geology to the Woodwardian professor at Cambridge. One is in Bloemfontein, one is sanitary inspector at Hampstead, another assistant curator of the museum at Cape Town, and another in the missionary
school at Tokio; and a daughter of a late master of S. John’s is a market gardener. The historical students are to be found teaching in New Zealand, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, and Winnipeg, lecturing in English literature in Birmingham University, assisting the Professor of Education and assistant secretary in the faculty of commerce and administration in Manchester University, Principal of S. Margaret’s Hall Dublin, of the Cambridge Training College, of the Diocesan school at Lahore, of the missionary school at Kobé, Japan, superintendent of the women students in University College Bangor, and on the Education committee of the Somerset County Council. The Medieval and Modern Languages students are to be found as tutor and lecturer in French at University College Bristol, as readers in German at Bryn Mawr College Philadelphia, lecturers in English and French at Holloway College, mistress of the Ladies’ College Durban, and of the convent school Cavendish Square. Teaching in Queen’s College Barbadoes, in Londonderry, Brecon, and Guernsey (Newnham and Girton students are to be found in both the Channel Islands), Vice-principal of the Samuel Morley Memorial College London, and, not least interesting, lecturer at the University Extension College Exeter. One is assistant librarian of the Acton library Cambridge, another almoner of King’s College hospital, and a third is on the Education committee of the Gateshead County borough Council. Among the 658 who have not taken triposes,[477] among the usual number of principalships and head and assistant mistress-ships of schools and colleges, we find old students lecturing in History at the Women’s College Baltimore, demonstrating in Physics at Bryn Mawr College Philadelphia, lecturer at Smith College Northampton U.S.A., Professor at Wellesley College Massachusetts, tutor at Owens College Manchester, head of the Presbyterian school Calcutta, head mistress of the Church Missionaries’ High school Agra, warden of the Women’s University Settlement Southwark (and ex-vice-principal of Newnham College), and Principal of Alexandra College, Dublin (LL.D. of Dublin honoris causa). One is clinical assistant at the Royal Free hospital, another is in the superintendent’s office at Guy’s, a third is a physician at Newcastle-on-Tyne and member of the County borough Education committee. There is a lecturer in botany at Holloway, the director of a lyceum at Berlin, a teacher and superintendent of a class for blind women (Association for the Welfare of the Blind), a clerk to London university, a member of the council of Queen’s College London, and the secretary of the Association of University Women Teachers. These old students are also to be found in Toronto, the West Indies, Vancouver, New South Wales, New Zealand, Pietermaritzburg, Natal, Johannesburg, North China, New York, and Christiania; and on the Education committees of the Dorset, Herefordshire, and West Sussex County Councils, on the Croydon Education committee, and lecturing on English literature and on classical archaeology.
A large number of students take the tripos with a view to tuition, with which the above lists are, as we see, mainly concerned; but an account of the literary output of Newnham students is in course of preparation.