The head of Somerville College, University of Oxford, is the Principal. The current principal is Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon who took up the appointment in August 2017, succeeding Alice Prochaska.[1]

Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
Name Birth Death Principal between Notes
Madeleine Shaw-Lefèvre 1835 1914 1879–1889 First Principal of Somerville Hall
Agnes Catherine Maitland 1850 1906 1889–1906 Second Principal of Somerville Hall, and first Principal of Somerville College, from 1894; introduced the tutorial system to Somerville
Emily Penrose 1858 1942 1906–1926 Classical scholar
Margery Fry 1874 1958 1926–1930 Social reformer
Helen Darbishire 1881 1961 1930–1945 Literary scholar
Janet Vaughan 1899 1993 1945–1967 Haematologist and radiobiologist
Barbara Craig 1916 2005 1967–1980 Classical archaeologist
Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth 1921 2010 1980–1989 Spy
Catherine Pestell 1933 2014 1989–1991 Civil servant and diplomat
No principal As the statutes of the college did not permit the principal to marry, Miss Pestell resigned, married and was re-elected as principal; however there was a two-week period when the college had no principal.
Catherine Hughes (née Pestell) 1933 2014 1991–1996
Fiona Caldicott 1941 2021 1996–2010 First woman to be President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (1993–96) and its first woman Dean (1990–93)
Alice Prochaska 1947 2010–2017 Head Librarian at Yale University
Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon 1955 2017– Leader of the House of Lords; then Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords

References

  1. ^ "New Somerville Principal announced | University of Oxford". ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
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