Lynda Grier

Lynda Grier, CBE (3 May 1880 – 21 August 1967) was a British educational administrator, policy advisor, and the principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, from 1921 to 1945.

When she and her mother, after her father's death, moved to Cambridge, Grier obtained permission to attend lectures at Newnham College as an external student.

In 1921, Grier was appointed as the principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and worked on the overhaul of the college to meet post-war educational requirements.

Serving from 1948 to 1950, she remained in abroad, traveling widely to evaluate education in the country in spite of the dangers of the Chinese Communist Revolution.

[2] During her childhood, Grier was deaf and because of her condition was taught at home by an aunt and her mother, who did not understand that her learning difficulties stemmed from her inability to hear.

As her hearing had improved, she began attending lectures of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and met Mary Paley Marshall.

Marshall allowed Grier to attend Newnham College, Cambridge as an external student, while she worked on her own to complete the gaps in her education.

[1] That year, she became a mentor to Barbara Wootton, laying out a reading list for the reluctant classics student to improve her studies in economics.

She became a strong supporter of the Workers' Educational Association and vice-chancellor, Michael Sadler, who believed that the university had a public duty to serve the broader community.

She oversaw drafting of a constitution to establish college regulations which would increase the staff and student populations and meet the post-war educational demands of women.

[8] The committee was the first in the UK to include women in an official government commission and they were charged with giving expert advice on education.

[10] Grier joined at the time when the Consultative Committee had made changes in their structure so allow the members, rather than the Board of Education, to direct their fields of study.

[12] Grier was invited in 1925 to serve as president of Section F (economics) of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which was an unusual distinction for a woman at that time.