List of principals of Somerville College, Oxford

Somerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford.^[1] It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of the university's first two women's colleges.^[2] Male students were admitted for the first time in 1994.^[3] The head of the college is the principal. Chosen by the college's governing body, the principal is charged with "general supervision over the conduct, administration, and educational work of the college".^[4] Somerville is the only Oxford college to have had exclusively female principals; St Hilda's, the last college other than Somerville to have been headed only by women, appointed its first male principal in 2014.^[5][6]

The first principal of Somerville Hall was Madeleine Shaw Lefevre, who was appointed on 3 May 1879.^[7] She was not an academic, but was well known for her social work.^[7] When approached by the chairman of the hall's council, John Percival, she was hesitant to accept the post and initially only agreed to take the role for one year, but ultimately remained in post until 1889.^[7] The first female tutor at the hall was appointed in 1882, and in 1884 women were permitted to sit university examinations for the first time.^[7] Upon Shaw Lefevre's retirement, she was succeeded by Agnes Catherine Maitland, under whom Somerville was the first of the five women's halls which now formed part of the university to formally adopt the title of college.^[8] The college's library opened for the first time during Maitland's tenure.^[9] During the tenure of the college's third principal, Emily Penrose, the requirement that female students be chaperoned while in the presence of male students was abolished, but male visitors to Somerville remained subject to a curfew.^[10] In 1927, Margery Fry, who had been appointed principal the previous year, spoke out publicly against the introduction of a limit on the numbers of students which the women's colleges could admit, but without success.^[11]

During Helen Darbishire's tenure as principal between 1931 and 1945, new additions were made to the college's buildings, including the east quadrangle which would later be named in her honour and the college chapel.^[12] In 1991, Catherine Pestell became the first principal to choose to get married while in office; as the statute of the college at the time did not permit the principal to marry, she resigned, married, and was re-elected as principal as Catherine Hughes.^[13] She was also the principal when the college opted to admit male students for the first time, a decision which proved controversial and to which many existing students were opposed, although the college's former principal Janet Vaughan told the press "I think the time had come for it. I am not sorry at all. I think it's very exciting actually."^[3][14][15] The current principal of Somerville is Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, who took up the appointment in August 2017, succeeding Alice Prochaska.^[16] Many former principals are commemorated in the names of buildings on the college site; the college's newest accommodation building, the Catherine Hughes Building, was opened in 2019, joining buildings named in honour of Maitland, Vaughan, Darbishire, Fry, Penrose, Barbara Craig, and Daphne Park.^[17][18] The longest-serving principal to date is Vaughan, who held the post from 1945 until 1967. The shortest-serving is Fry, who occupied the position from 1926 until 1931. The college's current statute states that the principal is normally appointed for a fixed term of seven years.^[4]