Louisa Innes Lumsden

Title: 
Dame
Dates: 
31 December 1840 – 2 January 1935

Louisa Lumsden was born in Aberdeen in 1840, the youngest child of Clements Lumsden, W.S. advocate in Aberdeen and Jane Forbes.

Louisa Lumsden attended classes run by The Edinburgh Ladies Education Association in the winter of 1868-9.
She was one of the first five students to be taught at the Hitchin women's college (later Girton College) and one of the first three female students to sit University of Cambridge Tripos examinations unofficially in Lent term 1873. She tutored at Girton 1873-74.

At Girton she met Constance Maynard (1849-1935) whom she referred to as her "wife."

She and Maynard taught at Cheltenham Ladies College 1876-1877. She then became the first headmistress of St Leonards, St Andrews, from 1877 until 1882 when she resigned owing to ill health. Maynard accompanied her to St Leonards but their relationship ended. Maynard went on to become Principal of Westfield College.

From 1895-1900 Lumsden was warden of University Hall, St Andrews, the first residential hall for women students in Scotland.

In 1908 Louisa Lumsden became president of the Aberdeen Suffrage Association. She became well known for travelling around the country in a caravan, campaigning for female suffrage. She was an accomplished public speaker.

She also campaigned for animal welfare.

She was created a Dame in 1925.

Louisa Lumsden died in Edinburgh in 1935.

Sources
The New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women
Entry by Lindy Moore p253