History

Mary Gurney (1836-1917) was born into a family with an already impressive history of activism. Both her grandfather and great aunt had been instrumental in abolishing slavery in Britain. Perhaps it was due to these liberal ideals that Mary’s parents provided her with such an atypical education for a girl in that age. It was this education that not only enabled her to produce translations of French, German and Spanish literature, but also inspired her to pass it on. Even from a young age, she taught her sisters at home, and later published the work ‘Are We to Have Education for Our Middle Class Girls?’, promoting schooling for women. She allied with Maria and Emily Grey, alongside Henrietta Stanley to form the Girls Public Day School Company at Albert hall in 1872. Even after forming this Company, she continued to attend weekly meeting at the schools to encourage their development, and set up scholarships for the Trust in her will.