Emily Shirreff

Emily Anne Eliza Shirreff (3 November 1814 – 20 March 1897) was a pioneer in the movement for the higher education of women and the development of the Froebelian principles in England.

[2] In 1831 her father was appointed to Gibraltar and did not think it his daughters needed another governess, bringing their formal education to an end.

[5] Emily and Maria first began to write together when Mrs Shirreff brought her daughters back to England in 1834.

[1] Though Maria was married in 1841, the two sisters continued to write together and anonymously published a romantic novel, Passion and Principle.

Emily helped raise funds for the North London Collegiate School and continued to write papers on women's education.

Emily was also involved in the Union's foundation of an evening college for women and the teachers training and registration society.

She also wrote a biographical sketch of Henry Thomas Buckle, who had been a close friend, for a posthumous edition of his works in 1872.