Constance Savery (1897–1999)

The daughter of the Rev'd John Manly Savery and Constance Eleanor Harbord, Winifred grew up in rural Wiltshire. The family moved to Birmingham when Savery was nine, where she attended King Edward VI Hugh School for Girls. Earning an Exhibition (scholarship) to Somerville College, Oxford, Savery was a member of the first group to which Oxford granted degrees and graduated with Honours. She taught briefly, but returned to her father's home in Suffolk when her mother died. She wrote fifty books, either for children or about children, together with scores of short stories, articles, and poems. At the age of 98 she was honored at Oxford as the last surviving member of the group who had received those first degrees in 1920. She continued to write up to her 100th birthday despite being legally blind.