Dame Lucy Stuart Sutherland DBE FBA FRSA (21 June 1903 – 20 August 1980) was an Australian-born British historian and head of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
[1] Sutherland was born in Geelong, Australia, but brought up in South Africa where she attended Roedean School in Johannesburg, then the University of the Witwatersrand, where she studied history under Professor William Macmillan.
In 1926 she was the first woman undergraduate to speak at the Oxford Union, winning applause for her opposition to the motion 'That the women's colleges ... should be levelled to the ground'.
At a time when the women's societies were advancing towards the full collegiate status finally accorded them in 1960, it was of immense benefit to the Hall to have at its head a woman of Miss Sutherland's statesmanlike vision.
Her wisdom and far-sightedness, her clear understanding of financial matters, her business-like handling of committees, her vigorous realism, tempered by discretion, all combined to make her an ideal chairman.