She managed the thousands of women who worked at Lloyds Bank during the first world war.
She then joined the recently opened Oxford college for women Lady Margaret Hall in 1881 and left in 1884.
At the end of the war the situation was reversed and women would no longer be recruited as clerks.
[6] She did charity work at what was St Mary Abbots Hospital and she represented Lady Margaret Hall on the University Women's Club in London - where women could have a "gentleman's club".
[6] Sykes died in a nursing home in Hurstpierpoint and she left a substantial legacy to the sisterhood at Oxford Mission Church in what is now Bangladesh.