{{Short description|British academic}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}{{Use British English|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Ethel Hurlbatt | image = Ethel Hurlbatt.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1866|07|01|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Bickley]], [[Kent]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1934|03|22|1866|07|01|df=y}} | death_place = [[Tours]], [[France]] | alma_mater = [[Somerville College, Oxford]]<br>[[Trinity College, Dublin]] | occupation = educator | employer = [[Aberdare Hall]], [[Bedford College, London|Bedford College]], [[Royal Victoria College]] | organization = Cardiff and District National Suffrage Society (CDWSS), Cardiff Charity Organisation Society, Welsh Union of the Women’s Liberal Association (WUWLA), [[University Women's Club|University Women’s Club of London]], Comité France-Amérique de Montréal, [[Alliance Française]], Montreal Women’s Canadian Club, [[Art Association of Montreal]], Women’s War Registry Committee | awards = Officier de l’Instruction Publique (1918) }} '''Ethel Hurlbatt''' (1 July 1866 – 22 March 1934) was an English educator and a promoter of women’s entrance into the professions. She is recognised for her work in women's education combined with loyalty to the institutions she worked for. She was Principal of [[Bedford College, London|Bedford College]], [[University of London]], and later Warden of [[McGill University#University development|Royal Victoria College]], the women's college of [[McGill University]], in [[Montreal|Montreal, Quebec]], Canada, which had opened in 1899.
== Early life == Hurlbatt was born in [[Bickley]], [[Kent]], England, on 1 July 1866. Her parents were Charles Hurlbatt, a mining engineer, and Sophia Margaret Hurlbatt ({{Nee|Smith}}). She was one of seven children.<ref name="ODNB">Badham, Sophie. (23 September 2004) "[[doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48440|Hurlbatt, Ethel (1866–1934)]]." ''[[Dictionary of National Biography|Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]].'' Retrieved 28 December 2011.</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Morton |first=Suzanne |title=HURLBATT, ETHEL |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/8964 |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=[[Dictionary of Canadian Biography]], Vol. 16 |publisher=[[University of Toronto]]/[[Université Laval]], 2003–}}</ref>
==Education== Hurlbatt was educated privately and then read [[modern history]] at [[Somerville College, Oxford]], from 1888 to 1892 gaining [[second class honours|second]] class. Her [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] and [[Master of Arts|MA]] were conferred by [[Trinity College, Dublin]] in 1905, as Oxford allowed women to sit the examinations but did not confer degrees on women at that time. She did however receive an honorary MA from the [[University of Oxford]] in 1925.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref name=":0" />
==Career== After a year living in [[Oxford]] and researching in the [[Bodleian Library]], in 1892 Hurlbatt became the founding principal of [[Aberdare Hall]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Aberdare Hall |url=https://www.cardiffparks.org.uk/cathays/info/aberdarehall.shtml |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Cardiff Parks}}</ref> the women’s residence of the [[University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire]] in Cardiff and now part of Cardiff University.<ref name="ODNB" />
While living in Wales, Hurtlbatt supported the [[Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom|women's suffrage]] movement and joined the Cardiff and District National Suffrage Society (CDWSS).<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Gorno |first=Joelle |date=2023-12-22 |title=Welsh Women Teachers and the Women's Movement in South Wales (1870-1928) |journal=Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique. French Journal of British Studies |language=en |volume=XXVIII |issue=3 |doi=10.4000/rfcb.11244 |issn=0248-9015|doi-access=free }}</ref> She was also honorary secretary for the Association for Promoting the Education of Women, was a member of the Cardiff Charity Organisation Society and her name her name features in documents of the Welsh Union of the Women’s Liberal Association (WUWLA).<ref name=":1" />
Hurlbatt's sister Kate, also educated at [[Somerville College, Oxford|Somerville College]], succeeded her as warden in Cardiff.<ref>{{Citation |last=Jenkins |first=Beth |title=Networks |date=2022 |work=Graduate Women and Work in Wales, 1880–1939: Nationhood, Networks and Community |pages=177–212 |editor-last=Jenkins |editor-first=Beth |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-07941-2_6 |access-date=2025-04-24 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-07941-2_6 |isbn=978-3-031-07941-2|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1898, Hurlbatt became principal of the London women's college, [[Bedford College, London|Bedford College]],<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZz-xEGqPTkC&dq=Ethel+Hurlbatt&pg=PA112 |title=The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions |date=1898 |publisher=Garland Publishing |pages=112 |language=en}}</ref> but resigned in 1906 due to ill health.<ref name="ODNB" />
From 1907 until her retirement in 1929, Hurlbatt was Warden of [[McGill University|Royal Victoria College]] in [[Montreal]], Canada,<ref name=":0" /> where she was also "resident tutor" of history.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Boutilier |first1=Beverly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ryT0gX7czfUC&dq=Ethel+Hurlbatt&pg=PA229 |title=Creating Historical Memory: English-Canadian Women and the Work of History |last2=Prentice |first2=Alison |date=2011-11-01 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0-7748-4164-1 |pages=213 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=Donald A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sY26CQAAQBAJ&dq=Ethel+Hurlbatt&pg=PA108 |title=The Professionalization of History in English Canada |date=2015-05-27 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-2930-1 |pages=108 |language=en}}</ref> Her service to the college was recognized in 1930 when she received an honorary [[Legum Doctor#Canada|LLD]] from McGill.<ref name=":0" />
In Montreal, Hurlbatt was involved with many clubs and philanthropic ventures, including the women’s commission of the Comité France-Amérique de Montréal [<nowiki/>[[:fr:France-Amériques|fr]]], the local branch the [[Alliance française|Alliance Française]], the Montreal Women’s Canadian Club and the [[Art Association of Montreal]]. She was awarded the [[Officier de l'Instruction Publique|Officier de l’Instruction Publique]] in 1918.<ref name=":0" /> Hurlbatt maintained her membership in the [[University Women's Club|University Women’s Club of London]] during her time living in Canada.<ref name=":0" /> She also linked Canadian college women to British women's movements.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morton |first=Suzanne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eyjKAwAAQBAJ&dq=Ethel+Hurlbatt&pg=PA53 |title=Wisdom, Justice and Charity: Canadian Social Welfare through the Life of Jane B. Wisdom, 1884-1975 |date=2014-01-01 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-1461-1 |pages=53 |language=en}}</ref>
During [[World War I]], Hurlbatt served as chairwoman of the Women’s War Registry Committee in Montreal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=First World War |url=https://www.mcgill.ca/can150-mtl375/article/first-world-war |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Canada150 / Montreal375 |publisher=[[McGill University]] |language=en}}</ref>
== Later life and death == During her retirement Hurlbatt travelled widely pursuing her interest in sketching. In the year before she died she had several [[heart attack]]s, complicated by [[influenza]]. Hurlbatt died on 22 March 1934 in [[Tours]], [[France]].<ref name="ODNB" /><ref name=":0" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Publications== * ''Women and McGill'' (1920)
==External links== * [https://www.mcgill.ca/search/?query=Hurlbatt&find=Find Profile], McGill.ca; accessed 25 April 2016.
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{{succession box |title=[[Principal (academia)|Principal]]<br>[[Bedford College (London)|Bedford College]]<br>[[University of London]] |years = 1898-1906 |before=[[Emily Penrose|Dame Emily Penrose]] |after= [[Margaret Tuke|Dame Margaret Jansen Tuke]] }}
{{S-end}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurlbatt, Ethel}} [[Category:1866 births]] [[Category:1934 deaths]] [[Category:People from Bickley]] [[Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford]] [[Category:People associated with Bedford College, London]] {{Authority control}} [[Category:Academic staff of McGill University]] [[Category:English suffragists]] [[Category:British women in World War I]] [[Category:Officiers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques]] [[Category:British women civil rights activists]]