This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Deirdre Bryan. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 1856, Ireland
Died: 16 July 1936
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: NA
White, Henrietta Margaret (1856–1936), principal of Alexandra College, Dublin, horticulturist, and social activist, was eldest child among three daughters and one son of Henry Charles White (1818–1903), of Charleville, Queen’s Co. (Laois), JP and DL of Queen’s Co. and JP for King’s Co. (Offaly), and Elizabeth White (née Rossall), of Lancaster, England. She was educated at home by governesses and then attended Alexandra College, Dublin, and Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied history.
In 1890 White was appointed lady principal of Alexandra College, a position she held until her retirement in 1932. During her time there, she became a vocal advocate for women’s education, mirrored in the courses she implemented in the college. Under her leadership, lectureships in art history (1895) and Irish civilisation (1902) were endowed. Additionally, Alexandra College expanded its buildings and expanded its involvement with societies and sports. White was an ardent supporter of university education for women, and gave evidence to the Robertson commission on university education on 27 September 1901, where she advocated a route of separate but equal education for women.
White’s belief in higher education for women extended to include more practical training for women not of an academic bent, and after the college failed to achieve university status in 1909, White developed other aspects of third-level education through secretarial, housecraft, and teacher-training departments which opened at Alexandra College in the early 1900s. Her concern encompassed both secondary and higher women’s education and she belonged to numerous organisations including presidencies of the Irish branch of the International Federation of University Women (1925–9) and the Irish Schoolmistresses Association, and membership of the Irish Registration Council (1915–30), the viceregal committee on intermediate education (1919), and the central committee on women’s training and employment (1921–2).
White was also an advocate of women’s work and pursued this interest in various ways. As a member of the National Union of Women Workers of Great Britain and Ireland, she spoke at their annual conferences in 1908 and 1909 on the theme of service, an ideal she readily inculcated into her students. She founded the Alexandra College Guild (1897) for both students and alumni, established a working girl’s hostel in Dublin (1913), and during the first world war she organised women to knit socks for servicemen and to run a hostel for Belgian refugees. Dr John Gregg, the protestant archbishop of Dublin when she died, remembered her as a ‘pioneer but not a revolutionary’ (Ir. Times, 26 Sept. 1936), and pointed out that her very conservatism facilitated her success, as it was non-threatening and hence society was willing to support it both financially and practically. Such conservatism is evident in her foundation of the Soldiers’ Wives Club (1915), out of a concern to dispel the temptations these young women might face while their husbands were away. In 1914 she was also involved in a campaign for the admission of women to lay offices of the Church of Ireland.
Her passion outside work was horticulture, and she was a renowned specialist on the sweet-scented pelargonium, and cultivated an admirable town garden at the college. She even used her hobby to further her educational beliefs, and in 1903 approached a family friend, Frederick W. Moore, keeper of the Royal (later National) Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, to allow women to attend the horticulture school. He assented and allowed two women a year to attend, many of whom were from Alexandra College.
White was the second female recipient of an honorary LLD from the University of Dublin, in 1905. She had two portraits painted during her tenure as prinicpal; the first (1901) was by an unknown painter. The second (1931) was commissioned on her retirement from Sir William Orpen, RA. Both paintings are at Alexandra College. She published numerous articles on education, social service, and horticulture. In her later years she suffered from arthritis, and retired from the college in 1932. Never married, she died 16 July 1936 at her home, 65 Ailesbury Road, Dublin, and was buried privately. A memorial service was held 25 September 1936 at St Ann’s church, Dawson St., Dublin. The Henrietta White Memorial Hall was built at Alexandra College in her honour (1939), and the bulk of her papers are held in the college archives.