Olive Purser

Olive Purser (1886–1973), was one of the first women to enter Trinity College Dublin and was the first woman to be made a scholar.

Early life and education

Olive Constance Purser was born on 15 July 1886 to Alfred and Ellen Purser. Purser was the youngest of four. She had two sisters and a brother. Her father was a Chief Inspector of National Schools. Within a few years of her birth the family had moved to Rathmines in Dublin where they remained. The family were dedicated to education. Her aunt was Sarah Purser and her uncle was Louis Claude Purser while her two older sisters, Elinor and Luisa became teachers while her brother John, in 1911, was a master's student and Assistant to the Professor of Engineering in Birmingham University.

Purser was one of the first women to be admitted to Trinity College Dublin entering in the Michaelmas term of 1904. Within 2 years of the ban on women being lifted, she had become the first woman to be made a scholar under the TCD system on 11 June 1906. She won it for classics. At the time she achieved this, women were still not permitted to remain in the college after 6pm in the evening, to cross the Front Square without a chaperone or to dining with the male students or staff. Purser was a member of the Elizabethan Society started by her fellow student Marion Johnston. Two years after she completed her degree in TCD, Purser become a temporary lecturer at the University, taking over for Edward Dowden. In 1921 the Crewe report (The position of the Classics in the Educational System of the United Kingdom) lists her as Dean of the Women Students when she reports on the education of women and girls. Purser worked with her uncle Louis Purser on the Shanganagh dig. At some point after 1911 Purser went on to gain her doctorate. She later wrote a book on the women of Trinity.

Purser died on 12 April 1973.

References and sources