History

Maria Georgina Grey (née Shirreff; 1816 –1906) was a British educationalist and writer, born in London to William and Elizabeth Shirreff. Her father’s position as an Admiral meant that by 15 she had lived in Paris, Normandy and Gibraltar. In Paris, she and her sister attended boarding school, and then travelled widely - studying Italian, French and Spanish, and using family contacts to meet contemporary intellectuals. They started their literary work, writing collections of letters, and later their first novel in 1841. In the same year, she married William Grey, nephew of a former Prime Minister. He funded the sisters’ 1850 treatise ‘Thoughts on Self Culture Address to Women’, arguing women should not receive an education for the purpose of finding a husband, but a more comprehensive schooling. In 1870 she campaigned with the Society of Arts to form the National Union of the Improving the Education of Women of All Classes, a committee that would evolve into the GDST.