Kathleen E. Innes (1883–1967)

Kathleen E. Innes, née Royds, was born to a wealthy Quaker family in Reading, England. In 1895, the family moved to St. Mary Bourne, a village in Hampshire with Roman and Saxon roots, which sparked her interest in local history. She spent her childhood roaming the area, reading books from her father's library, and was not expected to have a career except marriage. However, she passed the Cambridge entrance examinations and became the first woman in her family to obtain a university education. In 1907, she began teaching at St. Katharine's College Practising School to complete her one-year practicum requirement and graduated with her teachers diploma from Cambridge University. She began teaching at Wycombe House School in Brondesbury in 1910. Unable to obtain a higher degree because of Cambridge's restriction on women, she got a chancellor's diploma in literature from London University. As valedictorian of her class, she received both the Gilchrist Medal and the Churton Collins Memorial Prize. In 1911, she published a biography and critical analysis of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleridge and His Poetry. The following year, she published Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Her Poetry. While still working and publishing, she continued her studies and in 1912, after a grueling examination in English and German literature and language, she earned a BA degree in modern languages. She then began teaching in private girls' high schools as well as the Jersey Ladies College. In 1915, she left her teaching post to assist with relief efforts for refugees both in continental Europe and in the UK. The war caused her to turn toward pacifism, and she worked for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the League of Nations Union (LNU). In 1921, she married George Alexander Innes, a fellow relief worker whom she had met in Salonika, Greece. She wrote books such as The Story of the League of Nations (1925) and The Story of Nansen and the League (1932). In 1927, Innes was elected vice chair of the London WILPF and remained in that position until she became chair in 1934. In 1937, she became one of the three joint co-chairs of the international WILPF, along with Gertrud Baer (1890-1981) and Clara Ragaz. She published book reviews, biographies, and articles in a variety of Quaker journals. During World War II, she moved back to Hampshire; after the war she published local histories and some Biblical stories.