Allenswood Boarding Academy

Allenswood Boarding Academy (also known as Allenswood Academy or Allenswood School) was an exclusive girls' boarding school founded in Wimbledon, London by Marie Souvestre in 1870 and operated until the early 1950s, when it was demolished and replaced with a housing development.

Allenswood Academy
Location
London England
Information
Type	Boarding
Established	1870
Headmistress	Marie Souvestre
Gender	Girls

History

Allenswood House was located on a large tract of land between Albert Drive and Wimbledon Park Road,[1][2] in Southfields in the London Borough of Wandsworth, England.[3] It was owned by Henry Hansler and was built in the Tudor Revival style between 1865 and 1870.[4] The house was converted in 1870 by Marie Souvestre and her partner, Paolina Samaïa, into a boarding school for girls.[1][4] The school, whose students were primarily from the European aristocracy and American upper-class, provided a progressive education to its students. Often called a finishing school, Allenswood had a curriculum that included serious study at a time when education was denied to women, and stressed feminist ideals of social responsibility and personal independence.[5] In addition to learning French, which was the official language spoken at the school, students studied the arts, dance, history, language (English, German, and Italian), literature, music, and philosophy and were required to develop their own analytical skills to assess ideals and challenges.[6][5]

When Souvestre died in 1905, Samaïa became the headmistress until 1909. She was succeeded by Florence Boyce and then in 1916, by Helen Gifford, one of Eleanor Roosevelt's classmates and Jeanne Dozat. Gifford and Dozat served as co-principals[7] until 1922, when Gifford left to establish Benfleet Hall, a school based on Souvestre's model, in Benhill, Surrey.[8][9] Dozat was later joined by Enid Michell, who remained as headmistress until the school closed in 1950.[8]

Redevelopment

In 1950, the London County Council and Wandsworth London Borough Council took possession of the site under eminent domain to develop the Wimbledon Park Estate.[8] The school was demolished and a housing development, known as Allenswood Estate, was created on the site.[1]

Noted faculty

• Frances Stevenson[10]

Noted alumni

• Hilda Wynnefred Burkinshaw (1885-1962),[11][12][13] who in 1908 married Cuthbert Collingwood Lloyd Fitzwilliams (aka C. C. L. Fitzwilliams),[14] a Major in the Welsh Guards.[12] She remained close to Roosevelt and in 1942 hosted a reunion in London of classmates in Roosevelt's honor.[15]
• Dorothy Bussy, née Strachey[16]
• Beatrice Chamberlain[17]
• Ethel Chamberlain[7]
• Corinne Alsop Cole, née Robinson[18]
• Lady Sibyl Colefax, née Halsey[19]
• Megan Lloyd George[10]
• Eleanor Roosevelt[3]
• Pernel Strachey,[20] along with three of her sisters[21]
• Pippa Strachey[22]
• Mien van Wulfften Palthe, née Broese van Groenou[23]

References

Citations

1. McNeill-Ritchie & Elam 2016, p. 180.
2. Ziemba, Gregg. "The site of Allenswood Academy - Eleanor Roosevelt attended between 1899-1902". www.englandunderground.com. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
3. Steinberg 1959, p. 31.
4. Fookes 2016, p. 3.
5. Roosevelt & Dunn-Mascetti 2002, p. 64.
6. Steinberg 1959, p. 33.
7. Fookes 2016, p. 11.
8. Fookes 2016, p. 12.
9. Thres 2011.
10. Gilbert 1992, p. 21.
11. UK Census 1901, p. 19.
12. The Times 1962.
13. Death Registry 1962.
14. Marriage Registry 1908, p. 215.
15. Roosevelt 1942, p. 5.
16. Thomason & Hayes 2016, p. 12.
17. Fookes 2016, p. 10.
18. Merry 2001, p. 4.
19. McLeod 1991, p. 24.
20. Fookes 2016, p. 7.
21. Rawlinson 2006, p. 37.
22. Caine 2004.
23. de Wilde 2016.

Bibliography

• Caine, Barbara (23 September 2004). "Strachey, Philippa [Pippa] (1872–1968)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• de Wilde, Inge (15 November 2016). "Broese van Groenou, Frederika Wilhelmina (1875–1960)" (in Dutch). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2019. Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Fookes, Alice (2016). Ellison, Monica (ed.). "A new sense of savoir faire: Marie Souvestre, charismatic, progressive Headmistress of Allenswood School" (PDF). wimbledonsociety.org.uk. London, England: The Wimbledon Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 January 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Gilbert, Bentley B. (1992). David Lloyd George, a political life: Organizer of victory, 1912–1916. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press. OCLC 32112291.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• McLeod, Kirsty (1991). A Passion for Friendship: Sibyl Colefax and Her Circle. London, England: Michael Joseph Co. ISBN 978-0-7181-3166-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• McNeill-Ritchie, Simon; Elam, Ron (2016). Wimbledon & Southfields Through Time. Stroud, Gloucestershire, England: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4456-6106-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Merry, Robert W. (2001). "Alsop, Corinne Robinson (2 July 1886, Orange, NJ—24 June 1971, Avon CT)". In Beasley, Maurine Hoffman; Shulman, Holly Cowan; Beasley, Henry R. (eds.). The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-0-313-30181-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Rawlinson, Zsuzsa (2006). The Sphinx of Bloomsbury: The Literary Essays and Biographies of Lytton Strachey. Budapest, Hungary: Akadémiai Kiadó. ISBN 978-963-05-8351-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Roosevelt, David B.; Dunn-Mascetti, Manuela (2002). Grandmère: A Personal History of Eleanor Roosevelt (2008 e-book ed.). New York, New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-0-446-55099-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Roosevelt, Eleanor (17 November 1942). "Mrs. Roosevelt's Own Story of Her Visit to England". The News Journal. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 5. Retrieved 14 January 2019 – via Newspapers.com.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Steinberg, Alfred (1959). Eleanor Roosevelt. New York, New York: Putnam. OCLC 1251247.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Thomason, Elizabeth; Hayes, Dwayne D.; et al., eds. (2016). A Study Guide for Blanche Wiesen Cook's "Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume one 1884–1933". Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Group, Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-4103-4497-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Thres, Mark (2 August 2011). "Benfleet Hall". benfleethistory.org.uk. South Benfleet, Essex, England: Benfleet Community Archive. Archived from the original on 14 January 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• "1901 England, Wales & Scotland Census: Allenswood, Wandsworth, London". findmypast.co.uk. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives. 31 March 1901. p. 19. Retrieved 14 January 2019 – via Findmypast.
• "England and Wales Death Registration Index: Hilda W Fitzwilliams, Bourne, Lincolnshire, England". FamilySearch. Southport, England: General Register Office. 1962. Book 3B, page 65. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
• "Marriage Registry, St. Margaret Westminster: Fitzwilliams/Birkinshaw". findmypast.co.uk. City of Westminster, London, England: Parish Register Office. 10 June 1908. page 215. Retrieved 14 January 2019 – via Findmypast.
• "Marriages". The Times (48132). London, England. 22 October 1938. p. 15. Gale Document Number CS252130134. Retrieved 14 January 2019 – via Gale Group.