About
Mary Dormer Harris
Mary Dormer Harris was
born in 1867 at Dale House, Stoneleigh and educated in
Kenilworth, Twickenham, France and Germany before going to
Oxford University, where she took a first class honours
degree in 1888. She then taught and researched many aspects
of the history of Coventry, eventually producing an edition
of the fifteenth century Leet Book. She published a number
of articles and books, including the popular “Unknown
Warwickshire” in 1924. She was connected with the Dugdale
Society and the Birmingham Archaeological Society, lectured
in local history at Birmingham University and was a Vice
President of the Workers Educational Association. Before
the first World War she had been active in the women's
suffrage movement and she continued to encourage the
involvement of women in public work. She was also as a
member of the local League of Nations Union and
In 1916 became
the first lady to address the Leamington Literary Society
and in 1917
she became one of the two first ladies elected as
members.
A playwright herself, she
was a founder of the Dramatic Study Club in 1922 and was
much involved in the amateur productions of the
Loft Theatre. She was well known
for her parties at her home at 16 Gaveston Road,
Leamington, which might start with earnest readings from
Shakespeare or Shaw, but then develop into riotous
charades. Her obituaries talk about “her zest for life,
her sympathy with the joys and sorrows of everyone about
her, here kindliness and humour and her unaffected
sympathy”. Others mentioned “her wide circle of friends,
young and old”, her tact and wise counsel, her love of
the past “balanced by a perpetually fresh and gay
enthusiasm which carried a touch of idealism”, her
“gaiety and fun” and her “profound scholarship”. “Above
all, she was a very good friend, and was most helpful to
a number of young people who came into her circle”. Many
of those “young people” still remember her kind deeds.
A fascinating biography, “Mary Dormer Harris: The Life and
Works of a Warwickshire Historian”, by Jean Field, was
published in 2002. This well illustrated book is of
great interest to those wishing to learn more about Miss
Harris's life and to local historians alike.