THE LATE MISS CREAK. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "
SPECTATOR."] SIR,—At a time when the question of the position of women is S3 much under discussion special interest, not necessarily
confined to Edwardians, attaches to a meeting recently held at King Edward's Girls' High School, Birmingham, for the purpose of discussing suggestions for commemorating the pioneer work of the late Miss Creak.
One of the five original students of Newnham College, Cambridge, and one of the. first women graduates of London University, she became a Head-Mistress at the age of twenty, and the years of her career were some of the most important in the history of the higher education of women. To few pioneers has it been given to see their principles so universally vindicated. Many things, now commonplaces in girls' education, owed their beginning to her—e.g., the simplification of examinations, the postponement of public examinations until after the age of sixteen, the combining of domestic subjects with a High School education, and the teaching of the laws of health. One of the founders of the Head-Mistresses' Association, she was never tired of telling how much it owed in its early days to the inspiration and encouragement of Thring, and his work affords perhaps the closest parallel to her own. Both were alike in their belief in the importance of law and order and in the effects of trust and responsibility, in a discipline that was based, to use words she used to quote so often, on " the spirit of loving the things commanded."
The various suggestions for a memorial were in themselves a tribute to the character of her life and work. The suggestion of a Creak Memorial Library or a Newnham College Scholarship recalled her wide scholarship and love of learning for its own sake, while the proposal of a scholarship in connexion with the Lord Roberts Training Home brought back to us her keen appreciation of the debt due to those who sacrifice all in the service of their country. To some It seemed that a . Travelling Exhibition for Mistresses had in it that touch of adventure which would have appealed to Miss Creak, while it was also reminiscent of the strong emphasis she always laid on the necessity of a full and complete life for those who taught. Other suggestions will be gladly received by the Secretary of the Old Edwardians' Club.
While Miss Creak's most concrete memorial is the great school which caught her spirit of service, we who, in many ways, have learned from her would record our grateful remembrance.—We are, Sir, &c.,
WINIFRED CULLIS, D.Sc. (London), Nat. Sci. Tripos, Cambridge, Reader in Physiology University of London, Lecturer Royal Free Hospital; E. STANLEY GARDINER, Sc.D. (Dublin), Sometime Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge; A. HOMER, ScD. (Dublin), F.I.C., Sometime Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, Beit Memorial Fellow for Medical Research, Medical Research Fellow University of Toronto, Assistant Lister Institute; MURIEL WHELDALE ONSLOW, Nat. Sci. Tripos, Late Fellow Newnham College, Cambridge, Research Worker in Vegetable Physiology, Food Investigation Board; I. SMEDLEY MACLEAN, D.Sc. (London), F.I.C., Associate Newnham College, Research Chemist, Chemical Warfare Department, Miniztry of Munitions; J. M. SLATER, D.Sc. (London), Fellow and Lectlfrer Newnham College, Cambridge; BEATRICE THOMAS, Nat. Sci. Tripos, Director of Studies in Natural Science, Girton College, Cambridge; L. MORGAN, Secretary Old Edwardians' Club; W. I. CANDLER (nee Vardy); L. DAVISON (Former Science Mistress, King Edward's School); JOSEPHINE BINGHAM, Nat. Sci. Tripos, Cambridge, Head-Mistress, Cambridge County School; EDITH ARCHMALD, M.A., London, Classical Tripos, Cambridge, Sometime Scholar of Newnham College, Cambridge, HeadMistress of St. Albans High School.
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