Louise Creighton

Louise Hume Creighton (née von Glehn; 7 July 1850 – 15 April 1936) was a British author of books on historical and sociopolitical topics, and an activist for higher education of women at Oxford, and their greater participation in society, including women's suffrage, and in the leadership of the Church of England.

Early life

Born at Peak Hill Lodge in Sydenham, Kent on 7 July 1850, Louise Hume von Glehn was the tenth child of Robert von Glehn, a City of London merchant of German and Scottish ancestry, who had been born in Reval, Estonia. Her mother was Agnes Duncan, Scottish stepdaughter of a London merchant. Her older brother was Alfred de Glehn, designer of the French steam locomotive engine.

She was homeschooled before undertaking higher education. She passed, with honours, the General Examination for Women, the first London University higher examination for women. She was a prolific reader and a keen student of the writings of both John Ruskin and the Whigs historian John Richard Green.

Marriage to Mandell Creighton

In 1872, Louise married Mandell Creighton, a University of Oxford-educated historian. He later became a University of Cambridge Professor in ecclesiastical history, and was appointed Church of England bishop of Peterborough, in 1891, and London, in 1897. The couple had seven children: Beatrice 1872, Lucia 1874, Cuthbert 1876, Walter 1878, Mary 1880, Oswin 1883; and Gemma 1887.

Creighton, Mary Augusta Ward and Charlotte Byron Green were among the "don's wives" who organised lectures for women in Oxford from 1873. They joined the Association for Promoting the Education of Women in Oxford five years later.