Eminent Somervillians

Farhana Yamin grew up in London and came to Somerville in 1983 to study PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). After graduation, Yamin qualified as a solicitor and worked as an environmental lawyer, becoming a climate change and development policy expert. In 2001, she helped to deliver the Marrakech Accords, the international rules needed to complete the Kyoto Protocol and she has been advising leaders and countries on climate change and development policy for 30 years.

Yamin has taught in UK universities since 1995, including as a Visiting Professor at University College London. She stepped back from the world of academia and UN negotiations in 2018 to focus on non-violent civil disobedience and social justice movements challenging capitalism. As a Political Coordinator of Extinction Rebellion for a year, Yamin played a key role in the XR April 2019 protests, gluing herself to the Shell HQ offices in London, alongside thousands of other activists. She is a champion of community-based action and co-founded Camden Think & Do, where she is experimenting with radical inclusion & concepts of spatial justice by supporting communities create pop-up action hubs in high streets and public spaces. She also sits as an expert on various Commissions including Camden Renewal Commission and IPPR’s Commission on Environmental Justice. She serves as trustee or an adviser to a number of organisations working on the intersection of social, racial and ecological justice, including Greenpeace UK, WWF-UK and Julie’s Bicycle an organisation working on supporting artists and the cultural sector tackle climate and sustainability. Yamin is currently a Senior Associate at the UK think thank company Systemiq and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

Did you know? Farhana first broke the law in the name of climate justice in 2019, when she glued herself to the ground outside the Shell headquarters in London. Her protest formed a central part of the 2021 film Rebellion, which relates the inside story of XR from grassroots activism to international impact. 

Educated in Oxford, Alison Wolf came to Somerville in 1967 to study PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). She spent her early career after graduation in the United States as a policy analyst for the government, going on to work as a guest professor at the Institute of Education in London.

Wolf is the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London. She specialises in the relationship between education and the labour market. She has a particular interest in training and skills policy, universities, the medical workforce and gender issues. She is closely involved in policy debate and currently advises the government as an expert on skills policy. Her publications include The XX Factor: How Working Women Are Creating A New Society (Profile Books 2013), Does Education Matter? Myths about Education and Economic Growth (Penguin 2002) and Remaking Tertiary Education (Resolution Foundation 2016). Wolf is also a presenter for BBC Radio 4’s Analysis.

In 2011, Wolf completed The Wolf Review, a review of vocational education. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2012 she was appointed a crossbench life peer and took her seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Wolf of Dulwich.

She is a member of the House of Commons Advisory Committee for Education. Wolf is an Honorary Fellow of Somerville. She is also President of the Somerville Association and Chair of its Committee.

Alison Wolf on Somerville ‘Somerville was and is an Enlightenment endeavour… I came up to Somerville knowing nothing whatsoever about why it bore its name. What I did know was its reputation as the most intellectual of the women’s colleges, so going there meant you were aiming very high’.

Shirley Williams (Catlin) grew up in London. Her mother was the writer and Somervillian Vera Brittain. Williams came to Somerville in 1948 to read PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) and was the first woman Chair of the Oxford Labour Club. After graduation, she won a Fulbright scholarship to Columbia University in New York, later returning to the UK to work as a journalist, and then as General Secretary of the Fabian Society.

Williams’ political career took off when she was elected Labour MP for the constituency of Hitchin in 1964, and she rose to become shadow Home Secretary in 1971. When Labour returned to power in 1974, she was promoted to Cabinet, becoming Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1976. She lost her seat in 1979. With the Labour party becoming increasingly left wing, she joined with fellow senior labour MPs Roy Jenkins, David Owen and Bill Rodgers to form the Social Democratic Party in 1981. In the same year following a by-election, she became the country’s first SDP MP. Following a split in the SDP in 1987, the majority of its members voted in favour of a merger with the Liberals which become the foundation of the Liberal Democrat party. In 1993 she took her seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Williams of Crosby and was leader of the Liberal Democrats in that House from 2001 to 2004. Williams was the only British member of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) and was advisor to Prime Minister Gordon Brown on nuclear proliferation from 2007-2010.

Alongside her political career, Williams also worked as an academic. In 1987, she became Professor of Elective Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She also served on the Senior Advisory Committee of Harvard’s Institute of Politics and was involved in the development of emerging democracies in Eastern Europe.

Read our obituary for Baroness Williams here.

Shirley Williams on Somerville ‘An Oxford education is, at its best, a fine training for the mind, but a Somerville education brings something else over and above that: a tenacity and persistence that gets things done… For me, the lessons of a childhood shared with a great Somervillian, and of a life lived and shaped by Somerville, are these: think, write and read, always; live and work vividly, and bring your mind to bear on everything, from the tiniest practical problem to the widest social issue; respect the views of others, and of the past, but don’t let that stop you being awkward when you need to be. Argue for what you believe, and do it well.’

Mary Ward was closely involved in the negotiations surrounding the foundation of Somerville Hall. She was the person who originally suggested that Somerville should be named for Scottish scientist Mary Somerville. The choice was deliberate: to keep the naming of the new establishment well away from the religious figures for whom other such halls and college had been named.

Ward was also a novelist, and her strong Victorian values made her work very popular (it was said that Julia Stephen recommended to her daughters Virginia (later Woolf) and Vanessa (later Bell) that they should take Mrs Ward as one of their role models of femininity. Her aim in ensuring that Somerville came into existence was what she called the ‘equalisation’ for women. She was Somerville Hall’s first secretary and her cousin was Emily Penrose, who would go on to become Somerville’s third Principal.

However, Ward was far from holding the suffragist sympathies shared by so many Somervillians at that time. She did not advocate ‘votes for women’, and in 1909, she wrote an article in the Times explaining that she felt legal, financial, military and international problems were ones that only men could solve. She went on to become the founding member of the Women’s Anti-Suffrage League and to create and edit The Anti-Suffrage Review.

Did you know? Mary Ward’s passion for educational work lives on today, with the London adult education centre, the Mary Ward Centre, named for her.

Janet Vaughan grew up in Bristol and came to Somerville in 1919 to study Medicine, graduating with a First (despite having, as she said herself, nothing more than ‘a little ladylike botany’ when she arrived).

Vaughan went on to train as a doctor at University College Hospital. Her medical work in London’s slums gave her a lifelong commitment to socialism and also inspired her to take up work as a research pathologist looking at blood disorders. As part of the UK’s preparations for the Second World War, Vaughan began to develop a system for separating, storing and moving blood, creating Britain’s first national blood banks (the modified milk bottle used to store blood became known as a ‘Janet Vaughan’). At the end of the War, Vaughan was asked to go to Belsen at the head of a Medical Research Council Team to carry out research into how those suffering from starvation could best be treated (‘I am here,’ she wrote, ‘trying to do science in hell’).

The first scientist to be Principal of Somerville, Vaughan was also, for a time, the only scientist to be a head of house in Oxford. By the time Vaughan retired as Principal, 40% of the college’s students were scientists. Throughout her tenure, she continue to work in the lab and write academic papers. She also served on the Royal Commission for Equal Pay and as a founder Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation. When asked once in a radio interview how she managed to fit so much into her life, Vaughan said simply, ‘I never played bridge’.

You can read an article about Janet Vaughan’s work for the prisoners of Belsen, written to commemorate the 75^thanniversary of the camp’s liberation, here.

Did you know? Janet Vaughan’s mother was a close friend of Virginia Woolf, and Woolf once described Janet Vaughan as ‘an attractive woman: competent, disinterested, taking blood tests all day to solve abstract problems’.

Shriti Vadera grew up in Uganda before her family fled to India and later to the UK. She came to Somerville in in 1981 to study PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics).

After graduation, Vadera worked for investment bank UBS Warburg for over 14 years. Her work included advising governments of developing countries. From 1999 to 2006, she was on the Council of Economic Advisers at the UK Treasury. In 2007, Vadera was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for International Development in Gordon Brown’s government. She was created a life peer in 2007 as Baroness Vadera of Holland Park. She moved from International Development to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) and in 2008 she also beame a Permanent Secretary in the Cabinet Office. From 2015 to 2020, Vadera was chairwoman of Santander, becoming the first woman to head a major British bank. In 2021, she was appointed Chair of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and is the first woman and the first person of colour to chair the RSC. Vadera is an Honorary Fellow of Somerville.

Did you know? In 2018, in a conversation at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Shriti Vadera said ‘I’m not a great fan of leaning in. You’ve got to own the talent you have… The single most important thing is to be comfortable with who you are and not have to be somebody else.’

Xand (Alexander) van Tulleken grew up in London and came to Somerville in 1996 to study Physiological Sciences. After qualifying as a doctor, he specialised in tropical medicine and as a junior doctor worked in Darfur during the genocide, sparking an interest in the interaction between politics and medicine. He has a diploma in Tropical Medicine, a diploma in International Humanitarian Assistance and a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard, where he was a Fulbright Scholar

Van Tulleken has worked most often with his twin brother Chris (who studied Medicine at St Peter’s College, Oxford), exploring human biology and putting theories about health and medicine to the test on shows including Operation Ouch!, Trust me, I’m a Doctor and The Twinstitute. Alongside his media appearances, he continues with medical research and teaching, holding an honorary fellowship at the Fordham Institute in New York. He is a contributing editor to the first edition of the Oxford Handbook of Humanitarian Medicine. Van Tulleken continues to practise medicine in conflict zones, and has worked as a patron of international medical charities including Doctors of the World UK and Doctors Medical Emergency Relief International.

Xand van Tulleken on Somerville ‘Oxford can be an intimidating place but Somerville – a former women’s college – is welcoming to absolutely everyone. If you’re thinking of applying, check it out. Amazing tutors and students.’ ‘Also: they produced TWO prime ministers, a Nobel prize winner, some of the most amazing women the world has seen in science and the humanities (and a Bafta nominated CBBC presenter!).’

Margaret Thatcher grew up in Lincolnshire and came to Somerville in 1943 to study Chemistry. After graduation, she worked briefly as a research chemist before training as a barrister. In 1959 she was elected MP for Finchley.

Thatcher became Secretary of State for Education and Science 1970-1974 under Edward Heath. The Conservatives were defeated in 1974 following which Thatcher replaced Heath as leader of the party. She became Prime Minister in 1979 when the Conservatives returned to power and she held office for three consecutive terms, resigning in 1990 following a leadership challenge by Michael Heseltine. A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher privatised state-owned industrites and utilities, reformed the trade unions, lowered taxes and reduced social welfare expenditure. Thatcher’s cuts to higher education led to her being the first Oxford-educated post-war prime minister who was not given an honorary doctorate by the University. Abroad, she cultivated relationships with the world’s leaders (with Ronald Reagan in the US in particular), resulting in an international profile and influence for the UK which has rarely been greater during peacetime. In 1992 took her seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.

The Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust (MTST) was set up at Somerville in 2013 and offers scholarships to foster academic excellence, supporting individuals to succeed and equipping them to excel in their chosen field.

Did you know? Thatcher remained in contact with Somerville and with her tutor (Nobel Prize-winner Dorothy Hodgkin). She reportedly said that she was prouder of becoming the first prime minister with a science degree than becoming the first female prime minister. In 1980, she sent an open letter to Somerville about her time at the college. ‘One last thought – or is it a feeling,’ she wrote.  ‘I loved those years, I really did.’

Enid Starkie was born in Dublin and educated by a series of governesses (of whom one was French, sparking Starkie’s profound love of France). Starkie was also a talented pianist, but her father discouraged her from taking up a career in music and, to please him, Starkie came to Somerville in 1916 to study Modern Languages.

After her studies, Starkie worked as an assistant lecturer at Exeter University, returning to Somerville in 1928 when she was appointed the Sarah Smithson Lecturer in French Literature. She was elected a fellow of the college in 1935 and in 1946 she was appointed Reader in French Literature at Oxford. Starkie wrote authoritative critical works on Baudelaire (1957), Rimbaud (1947) and Flaubert (1967) and her other work included studies on Verhaeren, Gide and Peter Borel. She was known for being warm, tough and intelligent, and she could also be eccentric and unpredictable (an article in Time magazine described her as ‘a brilliant Rimbaud scholar who pub-crawls about Oxford in bright red slacks and beret while smoking cigars’). Starkie received a Doctorat of the Sorbonne and the French Academy literary prize and in 1958 she was elected to the Légion d’Honneur. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967.

Did you know? Enid Starkie successfully campaigned for the Oxford Chair of Poetry to be held by poets rather than critics. It was also her campaigning which led to W.H. Auden’s election to the Chair in 1956.