Caroline Spurgeon
Caroline Frances Eleanor Spurgeon (24 October 1869, India – 24 October 1942, Tucson, Arizona) was an English literary critic. In 1913, she was appointed Hildred Carlisle Professor of English at the University of London and became head of the Department of English at Bedford College, London. She was the first woman to be awarded a chair at the University of London, and only the third in Britain (after Edith Morley and Millicent Mackenzie). She co-founded the International Federation of University Women with Virginia Gildersleeve. Life Caroline Spurgeon was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, Dresden and at King's College London and University College London. She is known as the first female university professor in London, the second in England. She was the first female professor of English Literature (Edith Morley was given the inaccurate title "Professor of English Language"). From May 1900, she lectured on English Literature in London. She became a member of the staff of Bedford College, London, in 1901, and successfully competed for the newly created chair for English literature in 1913. She was an expert on William Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer. Her thesis, published in 1911 in Paris, was on Chaucer devant la critique, and in 1929