{{Short description|English civil servant and college head (1886–1971)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Myra Curtis | image = Myra Curtis.jpg | caption = Portrait by Herbert James Gunn | birth_date = {{Birth date|1886|10|02}} | birth_place = Sunderland, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1971|06|27|1886|10|02}} | death_place = Bognor Regis, England | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = Principal of Newnham College | education = | employer = | occupation = | predecessor = Pernel Strachey | successor = Ruth Louisa Cohen | parents = George and Annie Curtis | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}

'''Dame Myra Curtis''' DBE (2 October 1886 – 27 June 1971) was an editor, civil servant, and the Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge from 1942 to 1954.<ref name=HDBW/><ref name=DNB/>

== Early life == Curtis was born on 2 October 1886 in Sunderland.<ref name=":1">{{Cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-40538|title=Curtis, Dame Myra (1886–1971), civil servant and college head|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/40538|access-date=2019-04-12}}</ref> She was the daughter of George and Annie (Johnson) Curtis. The former worked at the Post Office while his wife was an elementary school teacher.<ref name=":1" /> Curtis was educated at Allan's Endowed Girls' School, Newcastle upon Tyne, Winchester High School and Newnham College, Cambridge.

After finishing school, she was an editor of the Victoria County History for seven years while also working as a private tutor.<ref name=":2" />

== Civil service == Curtis' civil service career began in 1915 when she became part of the temporary staff of the War Trade Intelligence Department. By 1918, she transferred to the Ministry of Food and became the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Establishment Branch from 1920 to 1922.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=A Historical Dictionary of British Women|last=Hartley|first=Cathy|publisher=Europa Publications|year=2013|isbn=978-1857432282|location=London|pages=125}}</ref> She became a permanent civil servant in 1923 after passing the first competitive examination for super-clerical grade women, in which she placed first.<ref name=":2" /> She then held positions in the Ministry of Pensions and the Post Office. Later, she was assumed the Assistant Secretary and Director of Women's Establishments in the Treasury, which was considered the premier women's post in the Civil Service.<ref name=":2" /> She retired from government work in 1942,

Curtis headed a government committee addressing children's care for England and Wales in 1946. This resulted to the so-called Curtis Report, which was described as "the first enquiry in this country directed specifically to the care of children deprived of a normal home life".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Champions for children, revised edition: The lives of modern child care pioneers|last=Bob|first=Holman|publisher=Policy Press|year=2013|isbn=9781861343536|location=Bristol, UK|pages=40}}</ref> It was presented to the Labour government, which replaced the war-time coalition government in 1945.<ref name=":0" /> The report led to the enactment of the Children Act 1948, which mandated that every local authority to set up a children's committee to advance children's interests.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eacPVJCXSlwC&q=Myra+Curtis&pg=PT32|title=Children's Literature in Context|last=McCulloch|first=Fiona|date=2011-09-22|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781441129307|language=en}}</ref>

Curtis was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1949.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=38493 |date=31 December 1948 |page=10 |supp=y}}</ref>

== Academic career == Following her retirement from the civil service in 1941, Curtis was elected Principal of Newnham College, taking office in January 1942. She would hold the post until 1954. She enabled the college to carry on in the face of wartime and immediate post-war restrictions, and as a civil servant, worked to improve the efficiency of academic administration. It was a difficult and frustrating process, particularly amid the restrictions of the post-war period.<ref name=DNB/>

Curtis played an important part in the negotiations on behalf of the women's colleges which resulted in women finally being awarded degrees from the University of Cambridge. In 1952 she was the first woman elected to the council of the Senate at Cambridge, and she chaired the women's appointments board. She also chaired a committee which promoted the establishment of a third women's college to accommodate the growing number of women at Cambridge: the result was New Hall, opened in October 1954, and now Murray Edwards College.<ref name=DNB/>

==References== <references>

<ref name=HDBW>{{citation |page=125 |author=MZ |title=Curtis, Dame Myra (1886–1971) |work=A Historical Dictionary of British Women |editor=Cathy Hartley |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=9781135355333}}</ref> <ref name=DNB>{{cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40538 |title=Curtis, Dame Myra |author=Mary Alvey Thomas |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/40538}}</ref>

</references>

{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box |before=Pernel Strachey |title=Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge |years=1942–1954 |after=Ruth Louisa Cohen}} {{end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, Myra}} Category:1886 births Category:1971 deaths Category:20th-century English civil servants Category:20th-century British women civil servants Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:British education activists Category:British feminists Category:Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:People educated at Dame Allan's School Category:Principals of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire