{{Infobox person | name = Caroline Rigg | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1852|08|26}} | birth_place = Guernsey, Channel Islands | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1929|12|16|1852|08|26}} | death_place = Brixton, London, England | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = founding head of the Mary Datchelor School | education = | employer = | occupation = | successor = Dorothy Brock | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Caroline Rigg''' (26 August 1852 – 16 December 1929) was a British headmistress. She was the founding head of the Mary Datchelor School.
==Life== Rigg was born in Guernsey in 1852. She was the first child of Caroline and Dr James Harrison Rigg. Her brother James McMullen Rigg was born in 1855 and he was to become a noted historian and DNB biographer.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=G. J. |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-35758 |title=Rigg, James McMullen (1855–1926), biographer and historian |date=2004-09-23 |publisher=Oxford University Press |editor-last=Murphy |editor-first=G. Martin |series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/35758}}</ref> Her father was a Wesleyan minister but in time he led Westminster Training College from 1868. Her father was keen for her to follow him into teaching. From 1867 the family were in London and she was enrolled at the City of London College for Ladies in Finsbury Circus. In 1872 she progressed to Southlands College,<ref name=carolineg/> which had just been established in Battersea with just over 100 students.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Southlands College {{!}} History |url=https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/student-life/colleges/southlands-college/history/www.roehampton.ac.uk/student-life/colleges/southlands-college/history/ |access-date=2025-08-10 |website=Roehampton University |language=en}}</ref> Southlands was the sister college to her father's training college.<ref name=carolineg/>
Rigg was the founding head of the Mary Datchelor School in 1877 after spending four years leading a Hammersmith board school.<ref name=carolineg>{{Cite ODNB |title=Caroline Rigg |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51759 |pages=ref:odnb/51759 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/51759 |access-date=2022-08-20 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref>
In 1883 she was invited to become a member of the Association of Head Mistresses (AHM) by its founder Frances Buss.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jacobs |display-authors=etal |first=Andrea |date=2007 |title=The Music Teacher in English Girls' Secondary Schools before 1939 |url=https://womenshistorynetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/whm_spring_07_55.pdf |journal=Women's History Network |issue=Spring |pages=15–17}}</ref>
Dorothy Brock was appointed to succeed her as the head of the Mary Datchelor school in 1918.<ref name=dot>{{Cite ODNB |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51970 |pages=ref:odnb/51970 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/51970 |access-date=2022-08-20 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref>
Rigg died in Brixton in 1929 leaving a bequest to support girls who wanted to go to university.<ref name=carolineg/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigg, Caroline}} Category:1852 births Category:1929 deaths Category:Guernsey people Category:Founders of English schools and colleges Category:Women school principals and headteachers Category:19th-century British women educators Category:19th-century British educators Category:Heads of schools in England Category:20th-century British educators Category:20th-century British women educators