Sophie Bryant

Life
1850-1922 [née Sophia Willock]; b. was 15 Feb., Sandymount, nr. Dublin; dg. of Rev W. A. Willock (FTCD); ed. by father and private governesses; f. appt. to chair of Geometry at London University, and moved with family to London, 1863; entered Bedford College, 1866; Arnott scholarship for science at in 1866; sat Cambridge Local Examination for Girls (matric.), 1867; m. Dr W. Hicks Bryant of Plymouth, 1869; took teaching post at a school for ladies in Highgate at his early death from cirrhosis, 1870; joined staff of North London Collegiate School (NLCS), Camden, 1875; one of the first two women to win BSc., 1881; first woman to receive a DSc, 1884 (on mental and moral philosophy); appt. second Headmistress, succeeding the School's founder Frances Mary Buss, 1895; one of three women members of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education (Bryce Commission, 1894-95); elected to University to the University Senate, 1898; served on the Technical Education Board and Education Committee of the London County Council (its successor); represented Board on the London Polytechnic Council; became member of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education; enthusiastic supporter of teacher-training and member of the Board of Studies of Pedagogy at London University; campaigned for chairs of education (UL); involved with Goldsmiths' College following its transfer to the University; honorary director of the Henrietta Barnett School, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and President of the Association of Head Mistresses; hon. doc., TCD 1904; contrib. Mind and published on the honeycomb of the bee; issued The Genius of the Gael: A Study in Celtic Psychology and Its Manifestations (1913); retired from NLCS in 1918; d. 1922, aged 72 as the result of an accidental fall during a mountaineering holiday near Chamonix, Switzerland.

[ top ]

Works

On Ireland,
  • Celtic Ireland (London: K. Paul, Trench 1889), xviii, 219pp.; Do. [rep.] (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 2000, 4 microfiche.
  • The Genius of the Gael: A study in Celtic psychology and its manifestations (London, Leipsig: T. Fisher Unwin 1913), 291pp.
  • Liberty, Order & Law under Native Irish Rule: A Study in the Book of the Ancient Laws of Ireland (London: Harding & More 1923), xxiii, 398pp.

Also foreword to W. A. McKnight, Ireland and the Ulster Legend; or, the Truth about Ulster: Statistical tables compiled from Parliamentary Blue Books and White Papers, &c. (London: P. S. King & Son, 1921), 96pp.
Education
  • An account of the North London Collegiate School for Girls (1870).
  • Welsh University, local examinations in Wales (1886).
  • Educational ends or the ideal of personal development (1887), and Do. [rep.] (Cambridge: Chadwyk-Healey 1994), microfiche.
  • Girls' Secondary Schools in a Complete System of Education (189-), 11pp.
  • How to read the Bible in the twentieth century (London: J. M. Dent & Sons; NY: E. P. Dutton & Co. 1918), 247pp.
  • “Moral education”, rep. from Journal of Education (April 1888), 11pp.
  • Moral and religious education (London: E. Arnold; NY: Longmans, Green & Co. 1920), viii, 256pp.
  • Over-work: from the Teachers Point of Vew; with special reference to the work in schools for girls: a lecture delivered at the College of Preceptors, 19 Nov. 1884 (1885).
  • School Honour (London Association of Schoolmistresses 1879).
  • Short Studies in Character (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. NY: Macmillan & Co. 1894), vi, [2], 247, [1]pp.
  • The Teaching of Morality in the Family and the School (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. 1897; 1898, 1900), vii, 146pp.; Do. [rep.] (Cambridge: Chadwyk-Healey 1995), microfiche.
  • with Charles Smith, Euclid’s Elements of Geometry, Books I and II (1897).
  • Euclid 's Elements of Geometry. Books III and IV (1899)

See also Frances Mary Buss Schools' Jubilee Record. E. M. Hill, ed., with co-operation of S. Bryant (1900).
Miscellaneous
  • Intro. to Mary E. Dowson, The Balance of Activities in women considered as bearing upon their education, intro. by Sophie Bryant [n.d.] 19pp.
  • intro. to Caroline Cassandra Graveson, The United Monarchy of the Hebrews (1912).
  • preface to Sophie M. Nicholls, Scenic Studies of the Bible Background ... maps and illustrations (1914).

[ top ]

Commentary
Isabella Martha Drummond, ed., Sophie Bryant D.Sc., Litt. D., 1850-1922: a memorial volume (1922), 71pp.; Edith A. Jackson, Mrs. Sophia Bryant ... by an Old North Londoner (1922).

[ top ]

Notes
Donor: Information above contributed by Gerry Kennedy [morriganbooks@online.ie].

[ top ]