Julia de Lacy Mann (22 August 1891 – 23 May 1985) was an English economic historian. She was principal of

St Hilda's College, Oxford St Hilda's College (full name = Principal and Council of St. Hilda's College, Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college is named after the Anglo-Saxon saint Hilda of Whitby and was founded in 1893 as a ...

, for 27 years, from 1928 to 1955.

Early life and education

Julia de Lacy Mann was born in London on 22 August 1891, the daughter of James Saumarez Mann, a classical scholar, and Amy Bowman Mann, the daughter of a classical scholar.Fernanda Helen Perrone
"Mann, Julia de Lacy (1891–1985)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press, 2004). Julia's only sibling, James Saumarez Mann, was killed by a sniper in Iraq in 1920. Like her grandfather, father, and brother, Julia de Lacy Mann read

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

, from 1910 to 1914, at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

. She earned a social science certificate from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

in 1915. After World War I, she returned to Somerville for further study and a diploma in economics.

Career

Mann worked briefly at the University Women's Settlement in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

, London, in 1914. During World War I, Mann worked as a clerk at the Foreign Office. She was assigned as a staff member at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. After the war, her career was mainly in academia, beginning as an economics tutor at St Hilda's College in 1923. She was principal of St Hilda's from 1928 until she retired from that position in 1955. Mann was assistant editor of the ''

Economic History Review ''The Economic History Review'' is a Peer review, peer-reviewed history journal published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Economic History Society. It was established in 1927 by Eileen Power and is currently Editor-in-chief, edited by ...

'' from 1927 to 1934. From 1934 to 1946, she compiled an annual list of books and articles on British economic history for the journal. Among her scholarly publications were ''The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780'' (1931, with Alfred P. Wadsworth), and ''The Cloth Industry in the West of England from 1640 to 1880'' (1971). In retirement, Mann lived at

Melksham Melksham () is a town and civil parish on the Bristol Avon, River Avon in Wiltshire, England, about northeast of Trowbridge and south of Chippenham. The parish population was 18,113 at the 2021 census. History Early history Excavations in ...

, Wiltshire, and continued her historical research and writing. She served as president of the West Wilshire Historical Society. An edited collection of textile histories was published in her honour in 1973. Brian Harrison recorded an oral history interview with Mann, in May 1976, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled ''Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.'' The interview uses the name Miss J de L Mann. She talks about her time at Oxford, her subsequent career, and how she got to know Kathleen Courtney – whom she describes as her second cousin – and the Courtney family. Julia de Lacy Mann died in 1985, aged 93, in Melksham.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Julia de Lacy 1891 births 1985 deaths Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford British women in World War I Economic historians Principals of St Hilda's College, Oxford 20th-century English historians