Gwendolen Lucy Somerset MBE (née Alley, 16 November 1894 – 31 October 1988) was a New Zealand teacher, adult education director, educationalist and writer.
[1][2] Her teaching methods were unconventional - she started the day with singing and dancing for example, as she found that many of her pupils worked hard on their family farms and needed relaxation at school.
Gwen married Crawford Somerset in Christchurch in 1930,[1] and in 1936, the couple jointly received a Carnegie Fellowship and attended the First World Conference in Early Childhood Education in England.
[2] Gwen decided to specialise in early childhood education and in 1949 was elected the first president of the New Zealand Federation of Nursery Play Centres (now Playcentre).
[1] In the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours, Somerset was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to pre-school and adult education,[4] and in 1975 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Victoria University of Wellington,[5] becoming the first woman to receive an honorary degree from that institution.