Agnes Body (29 April 1866 – 31 March 1952) was a British headmistress. She was the founding head of Lincoln Christ's Hospital Girls' High School and

Queen Margaret's School Queen Margaret’s School is a Canadian school in Duncan, British Columbia, in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. It has some 345 students in its preschool and kindergarten, junior school and senior school divisions. It also teaches ridi ...

, then in Scarborough.

Life

Body was born in Sedgley in 1866 where her father was the

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

. She was one of the seven children of Louisa Jane and George Body. In 1883 she was living in Durham with her family until in 1886 she went to Cheltenham Ladies College to train to become a teacher. She passed her exams and turned down an offer from Alice Ottley School to return to Cheltenham Ladies College to work under Dorothea Beale who convinced her that teaching was a "sacred mission". In September 1893 Lincoln Christ's Hospital Girls' High School was started with Agnes Body as its headmistress. Queen Margaret's School, York was established in Scarborough by the

Woodard Foundation Woodard (, ) may refer to: * Alfre Woodard (born 1952), American actress * Beulah Woodard (1895–1955), American sculptor * Brandon Woodard (born 1990), American politician * Charlayne Woodard (born 1953), American playwright and actress * Charl ...

, an organisation committed to the establishment of

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

boarding schools. Body was the founding head and she arrived from Lincoln with some of her former staff. In 1913, when ill-health made her retire, it was said that QMS was known as "Miss Body's School". Rosalind Fowler became the second head. Body moved from

Bishops Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated popu ...

to Torquay in 1930 and she died there in 1952.Margaret A. E. Hammer, ‘Body, (Mary) Agnes (1866–1952)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 23 Jan 2017
/ref>

References

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Body, Agnes 1866 births 1952 deaths People from Sedgley Women school principals and headteachers Heads of schools in England Schoolteachers from Lincolnshire