Katharine Wallas

Born in Barnstaple in Devon, Katharine was the daughter of Frances and Gilbert Wallace, the local vicar.

She left in 1887, long before the University of Cambridge awarded degrees to women, but in 1907 obtained an MA from Trinity College Dublin as part of the "Steamboat ladies" scheme, where female Oxbridge graduates were awarded degrees in recognition of the past learning.

[1] After university, Wallas became a maths teacher at Notting Hill and Ealing High School, where her sister Mary was also teaching.

During this period, she also edited a poetry anthology, The Call of the Homeland, with Robert Pickett Scott, and served on the executive of Girton.

In 1909, she took over her brother Graham's place on the education committee of the London County Council.