She was a headteacher in New Zealand and the first NZ woman to attend Girton College and to lead a British school.
[1] Both her parents were from Perth in Australia, and her father was an accountant and treasurer for the United Presbyterian Church synod.
She had considered being a pianist but she opted to be a mathematician after obtaining a place at Girton College in Cambridge.
[1] Both of them were both awarded MA degrees by Trinity College, Dublin in recognition of their success at Cambridge.
[1] In 1910, Frances Dove retired, and Whitehead was invited to return to Wycombe Abbey as the school's second headmistress.
After this she took up voluntary work as the warden at the Talbot Settlement, an Anglican women's mission in Camberwell.