Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Grey, Maria Georgina
GREY, Mrs. MARIA GEORGINA, whose maiden name was Shirreff (1816–1906), promoter of women's education, born on 7 March 1816, was younger daughter of Admiral William Henry Shirreff by his wife Elizabeth Anne, daughter of the Hon. David Murray; Emily Shirreff [q. v.] was her elder sister. In youth Maria was constantly abroad, and became an accomplished linguist. In later years, until she was prevented by ill-health, she went every winter to Rome. She early interested herself in the condition of women's education and position. On 7 Jan. 1841 she married her first cousin, William Thomas Grey (1807-1864), nephew of the second Earl Grey [q. v.] Her husband, who was a wine merchant in London, died on 13 March 1864. There were no children of the marriage.
Mrs. Grey collaborated with her sister. Miss Shirreff, in 'Passion and Principle' (1841), and in 'Thoughts on Self-Culture' (1850), but after her husband's death in 1864 concentrated her attention on women's education.
When the Report of the Schools Inquiry Commission of 1870 revealed the unsatisfactory condition of the education of girls in this country, Mrs. Grey read a paper at the Social Science Congress at Leeds, October 1871, advocating the establishment throughout England of large day schools for girls with boarding-houses in connection. For that purpose she formed in 1872 the 'National Union for the Higher Education of Women.' A mercantile company was created under the style of 'The Girls' Public Day School Company,' which provided the funds needed to give practical effect to the purposes of the union. Until 1879 Mrs. Grey was organising secretary of the union, which was dissolved in 1884. In 1906 the company was converted into a trust, which now (1912) has thirty-three schools and over 7000 pupils.
In order to ensure a supply of competent teachers for these new girls' schools, Mrs. Grey founded a training college for women teachers in secondary schools, of which again she acted as honorary organising secretary. The college was opened in 1878, with four students, in premises lent by William Rogers [q. v.], rector of Bishopsgate. After a removal in 1885, the college was installed in 1892 in its present quarters at Brondesbury, and became known as the Maria Grey Training College. Mrs. Grey throughout helped the college by donations of money and by unceasing effort to interest others in the work.
Mrs. Grey, who was an admirably persuasive speaker, was at the same time a strong advocate of the parliamentary enfranchisement of women, She was a member of the central society of the women's suffrage movement. In 1877 she wrote the pamphlet 'The Physical Force Objection to Woman's Suffrage.'
For the last fifteen years of her life Mrs. Grey was an invalid, but she maintained to the end her interest in women's education and progress. She died on 19 Sept. 1906 at 41 Stanhope Gardens, Kensington.
Many of her speeches were published as pamphlets. Besides the books in which she collaborated with Miss Shirreff, she published in 1858 a novel, 'Love's Sacrifice'; in 1887 a translation of Rosmini Serbati's 'The Ruling Principle of Method applied to Education'; and in 1889 'Last Words to Girls on Life in School and after School.'
[The Times, 21 and 24 Sept. 1906; Journal of Education, Oct. 1906; Burke's Peerage; cf. Hare's Story of My Life, vol. iv.; private information.]