CRGR - Classics at Bedford and Royal Holloway Colleges

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CRGR Project:
Classics at Bedford and Royal Holloway Colleges

A project in development addresses the history of Classics at our own institution. The languages, literature, philosophy, history and archaeology of ancient Greece and Rome have been taught at Bedford College (founded 1849) and Royal Holloway (founded 1879, with which Bedford merged in 1985) since they first opened in order to educate women in the Victorian era.

The cast of an Edwardian performance of a Greek tragedy at Bedford College

The cast of an Edwardian performance of a Greek tragedy at Bedford College

George Eliot, Bedford's most famous alumna, studied Latin there, and her novels are steeped in the classical myth and literature which formed so much of her early reading; in 2009 the scholar and broadcaster Margaret Reynolds will deliver the Classics Department's annual Dabis Lecture, made possible by a bequest a century ago from Thérèse Dabis (an early lecturer in Classics at Royal Holloway–for further information on Miss Dabis click here) on the theme of 'George Eliot and the Classics'. The particular focus will be on Greek tragedy and Adam Bede, to mark the 150th anniversary of its publication.

Other famous authors who certainly who certainly studied Classics at these colleges include Ivy Compton-Burnett, Richmal Crompton and Rosemary Manning; we are hoping in due course to conduct research into the role played in their development as writers by their Classical education.

In politics, Frances Stevenson, the lover, secretary, confidante and second wife of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, was an alumna of Royal Holloway Classics; Felicity Lott, the soprano, studied Latin as well as French at Royal Holloway in the 1960s.

Amongst the teachers of classical subjects at these colleges, the poet Louis MacNeice lectured in Greek at Bedford, and it was while in this post that he published some of his most important works, including The Agamemnon of Aeschylus and Autumn Journal. Bernard Williams also taught many Classics students while holding the Chair in Philosophy at Bedford College.