Richard Willis (Author) – Professor, University of Sussex, England

Series: Historical Figures
BISAC: HIS015000

The book draws upon substantial archival data to present a biographical account of the life and career of Frances Mary Buss (FMB). Unlike earlier biographies, written at a different time and for different reasons, I provide a critical and interpretative analysis, applying a research methodology given in Gary McCulloch’s Documentary Research in Education, History and the Social Sciences, McCulloch and William Richardson’s Historical Research in Educational Settings and Louis Cohen and Lawrence Manion’s Research Methods in Education. I investigate FMB’s legacy, nationally and internationally. I present her background, family and raison d’être, including her crucial time at Queen’s College, London. I give an account of the North London Collegiate School she founded in 1850, and her second school, the Camden School for Girls: their functions, the impact of examinations and relationships with teachers, other schools, inspectors and parents. I also engage in her professional inner circle, including Emily Davies, Dorothea Beale, Sophie Bryant, Beata Doreck, W.B. Hodgson, Joseph Payne, David Laing and others. I examine the part played by the Schools Inquiry Commission in the 1870s and FMB’s submission of evidence. I specify her contribution to the College of Preceptors, the Head Mistresses’ Association, the Teachers’ Registration Movement, the Teachers’ Guild, the Cambridge Training College, and the Kensington Society.