| Caroline Herford | |
| Birth Date: | 1860 |
| Death Date: | 1945 |
| Death Place: | Great Missenden |
| Occupation: | educationist |
| Spouse: | Robert Blake |
| Nationality: | British |
Caroline Herford MBE, later Caroline Herford Blake (1860–1945) was an English educationist.[1]
Herford was born in Lancaster on 1 November 1860, the daughter of Unitarian minister William Henry Herford and Elizabeth Anne Davis (died 1880). She was at Newnham College in 1885 and a year later she had a Mabchester University masters degree. From 1886 to 1907 she was headmistress of the Froebelian Lady Barn House School,[2] which her father had founded in 1873.[3] She was said to be one of the founders of Withington Girls' School in Manchester where she taught biology.[4]
She also lectured at the Manchester Kindergarten Training College.[5] Caring for her father until his death in 1908, Herford then lectured for a short time at University College, Reading. From 1910 to 1918 she was Lecturer in Education at Manchester University. She was a founding member of the Manchester University branch of the British Federation of University Women, and a member of Manchester City Council until defeated by a Conservative candidate in 1923.[1]
In World War I she was a Red Cross Commandant, organizing university students to meet ambulance trains. For this work she was awarded an MBE in 1919.[6]
In 1924 Herford married Robert Blake (died 1931), and left Manchester to live with him in Somerset. She served on Somerset education committee. After his death she lived with a Manchester friend, Julia Sharpe, in Great Missenden. She died there on 16 March 1945.[2]