Louise Creighton

Born Louise Hume von Glehn in 1850, she became known as a British author who wrote history, biography, and social commentary for a wide audience. She is also remembered for her public work on behalf of women, especially in higher education at Oxford and in campaigns for a greater role for women in society and in the Church of England.

Creighton married the historian and churchman Mandell Creighton, later Bishop of London, and moved within influential intellectual and religious circles. Alongside family life, she built a serious career of her own as a writer, publishing books on historical and political subjects as well as more accessible works for general readers.

Her reputation today rests on that unusual combination of literary work and practical reform. She died in 1936, leaving behind the portrait of a woman who was deeply engaged with the big questions of her time and determined that women should help shape the answers.