Frances Dove

Who was Frances Dove?

Dame Jane Frances Dove, DBE, JP was an English women's campaigner, who founded Wycombe Abbey and other girls' schools.

The daughter of a Lincolnshire clergyman, Dove attended Girton College, Cambridge but as the University refused to award women degrees she instead received hers ad eundem from Dublin - one of the many so called "Steamboat ladies" to do so. She later became Assistant Mistress at Cheltenham Ladies' College in 1877. From there she went on to become headmistress of St Leonards School, St Andrews, Scotland in 1882. She later founded Wycombe Abbey in 1896, and was its first headmistress. In 1900 she also founded the Godstowe School. On retirement from Wycombe Abbey in 1910, she endowed a scholarship at the school.

She was elected in 1907 to High Wycombe Borough Council. In 1928 she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She died in 1942, shortly before her 95th birthday.