Sarah Elizabeth Siddons Mair DBE LLD 1846-1941

The dining room, Chester Street, Edinburgh where the Ladies’ Edinburgh Debating Society met from 1871-1935. Inset Miss Sarah Mair, circa 1902.
© St George’s School Edinburgh

Pioneer in the cause of the higher education of women and President of the Ladies' Edinburgh Debating Society

Sarah Mair was born in Edinburgh in 1846. She grew up at a time when women in Britain were not permitted to go to university or become doctors or teachers, or even vote and she spent her life advancing the cause of the higher education of women and of women's suffrage.

From its inauguration Sarah was an active member of the Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women which organised courses of lectures for women given by sympathetic professors of the university and delivered to university standard. She was also co-founder of St George's Training College in Edinburgh which prepared women to teach in secondary schools, and co-founder of St George's School for Girls – the first Scottish day school for girls which taught up to university entrance level. Girls from St. George's were among the first women graduates of The University of Edinburgh and a plaque commemorating their achievements is still on display in the school.

In 1865 Sarah established the Edinburgh Essay Society, later known as the Ladies' Edinburgh Debating Society. She was its President for 70 years. The society provided a space for women to hone their debating skills and discuss all manner of public affairs. It met in the dining room of the Mair family home in Edinburgh's New Town at 11am on the first Saturday of the month from October to July. Debates were held on a variety of topics including literature, history, music, art and, of course, women's education. In 1866 the society was the first debating society in Scotland, and it is believed in Britain, to hold a debate on the need for women to have the vote.