Eileen Power (1889–1940)

Eileen Power was born in Altrincham (now part of Greater Manchester), England, the eldest daughter of a stockbroker and his wife. Her sister Rhoda Power became a children's writer and broadcaster. When Eileen was three, her father was arrested for fraud and went bankrupt, and the family moved to Bournemouth to live with her grandfather. Her mother died of tuberculosis when Power was 14, and she moved to Oxford with her two sisters to live with their aunt. Power was educated at Oxford High School for Girls, and won a scholarship to Cambridge University. After graduating, she spent 1910-1911 studying at the École des Chartres in Paris and began a Shaw fellowship, specializing in women's history, at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1911. She became noted for her academic work in medieval history in the years after World War I, and her books on women's history were considered pioneering in their day. She was Director of Studies in History at her alma mater, Girton College, Cambridge in 1913–1921, Lecturer in Political Science at the LSE in 1921–1924, and Reader at the University of London in 1924–31. She wrote books and produced BBC radio broadcasts on history for children with her sister Rhoda Power. In 1931, Prof. Power was appointed to the Chair of Economic History at the LSE, Her most famous book, Medieval People, was published in 1924. In 1927, Prof. Power co-founded the Economic History Review. In 1933, she joined the head of LSE, William Beveridge, in creating the Academic Freedom Committee, an organization that helped academics fleeing from Nazi Germany. In 1937, she married her colleague and former student, historian Michael (M.M.) Postan, Professor of Economic History at Cambridge University. Her last book, The Wool Trade in English Medieval History (1941), was published posthumously, following her untimely death at age 51 in 1940.