| Administrative History | Elizabeth Williams CBE (née Larby, formerly Emily May; 1895 – 1986) was a British mathematician and educationist.
She was born on 29 January 1895 in Pimlico, London. She studied in Chelsea and Forest Gate during her childhood, and at the age of 16 began attending Bedford College, University of London, for a college degree. At Bedford, one of her mentors was Alfred North Whitehead. She became a grammar school teacher, but had to stop teaching when she married in 1922. Consequently, she founded her own school in North London with her husband, and then in 1930 (with the assistance of Percy Nunn, who had been a former tutor) she took a position in education at King's College London. From then until her ‘retirement’ in 1958, she remained in teacher-training, moving from King’s to Goldsmiths’ before becoming the first principal of the City of Leicester Teacher Training College, and then principal of Whitelands College from 1952 to 1958.
She became a CBE in 1958, and was president of the Mathematical Association for 1965–1966.
Her obituary written by Geoffrey Howson records: ‘Few if any could have contributed to mathematics education for so long a period. But it was not only its duration which distinguished Elizabeth Williams’ work. Its range, in terms of the levels, areas and geographical regions in which she was active, was truly remarkable,’
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