Baroness Mary Warnock, CH, DBE, FBA (1924-2019)
22 March 2019
Hertford College is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of honorary fellow and noted philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock, who died on Wednesday.
Born Helen Mary Wilson in Winchester, she was the youngest of seven children. Her father had been a German teacher and housemaster at Winchester College, but died shortly before her birth. Mary first came to Oxford in 1942, having won a scholarship to read Classics at Lady Margaret Hall. Although she is said to have enjoyed the academic challenges that studying at Oxford brought, she found other aspects of undergraduate life a struggle. After five terms of study, she left LMH to teach at Sherborne School for Girls, thus avoiding Army service, and it was in this position that she found a love for teaching. She returned to Oxford in 1946, completing her degree in 1948, and subsequently becoming a philosophy tutor at St Hugh’s College, where she remained until the 1960s.
In 1966 she was appointed Headmistress of Oxford High School, a position she gave up in 1972 when her husband, Geoffrey Warnock was appointed Principal of Hertford (the couple brought the very first Simpkin with them, cementing a Hertford feline tradition that continues to this day). It was around this time that she became a regular philosophy commentator on BBC Radio 3, following the success of two books published by Warnock on existentialism. She served as a member of the Independent Broadcasting Authority from 1973, and was even considered as a possible chair of the BBC governors in 1980. During Geoffrey’s time as Principal, Mary was appointed Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, a position she held between 1984 and 1991; this formidable couple were perhaps unique in both serving as the Heads of House at Oxford and Cambridge colleges simultaneously.
Mary is perhaps best known for her two groundbreaking government reports on special needs in education and human fertilisation and embryology. In 1974 she was appointed chair of the UK inquiry on special education. Mary emphasised the importance of including learning-disabled children in mainstream schools in her report, published in 1978, which shock-waves through the educational system. Although she can be credited with bringing about radical and much-needed change to the ways in which special needs are catered for, Mary would later be critical of the way this legacy has been managed by subsequent governments and educational policies, and called for a new enquiry to address the issue.
Mary’s second notable contribution to public policy was her report as Chair of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology, which eventually gave rise to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1980. The commission and subsequent act also led to the foundation of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, whose former chair, Dame Susan Leather, noted that ‘perhaps the greatest achievement of the Warnock committee is that it managed to get an ethical consensus that people understood as well as shared.’
To say that Mary is best known at Hertford as the wife of Sir Geoffrey would not only undermine her many achievements, but also the special place and relationship that she shared with the college and the many students and fellows who have fond memories of her. She remained a loyal and dedicated friend of the college for her life, and we are honoured to count her among our number.
If you have memories of Lady Warnock that you would like to share with the college, then please contact the Development Office.