Beryl Paston Brown

Beryl Paston Brown was born in Streatham, Surrey, the daughter of Paston Charles Brown and Florence May Brown. Her father was a bank clerk.1921 England Census, via Ancestry. She was educated at Streatham Hill High School and Newnham College, Cambridge. She completed a teacher training course in London, however the Great Depression made it very difficult to secure a teaching post.

Paston Brown was a lecturer at Portsmouth Training College from 1933 to 1937, and at Goldsmiths' College from 1937 to 1951. She was a temporary lecturer at Newnham College from 1944 to 1946.{{Cite book |last=Shalvi |first=Alice |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Never_a_Native/mb9wDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Beryl+Paston+Brown&pg=PT178&printsec=frontcover |title=Never a Native |date=2018-09-20 |publisher=Halban Publishers |isbn=978-1-905559-97-8 |language=en}}

She was principal of the City of Leicester Training College from 1952 to 1961. As Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge University, from 1961 to 1971, Dame Beryl was credited with having developed a contemporary, relatively liberal social and academic life for students, as well as a teaching course degree which was validated by London University. "Dame Beryl combined high intelligence and great charm with a commitment to some very enlightened principles, and in many ways she set the tone for Homerton’s recognition by the University as a place of serious intellectual capability," recalled her colleague David Bridges.{{Cite web |title=Dame Beryl Paston Brown |url=https://homerton250.org/people/dame-beryl-paston-brown-a-personal-memoire/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Homerton 250 |language=en-US}} A proposal for the establishment of the B.Ed to the Council of the Senate of Cambridge University was first turned down in 1966, for fear of lowering standards, but was eventually approved in the 1970s with the assistance of Newnham College.Skinner, Joyce (5 August 1997). [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-dame-beryl-paston-brown-1244024.html Obituary for Dame Beryl Paston Brown], The Independent; accessed 6 January 2022. In 1971 she retired, and was succeeded by Alison Cheveley Shrubsole.{{Cite web |title=Alison Shrubsole |url=https://homerton250.org/people/out-of-africa/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Homerton 250 |language=en-US}}

Paston Brown was chair of the Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Education from 1965 to 1966, and editor of the association's journal, Education for Teaching. She was a member of the Newsom Committee, and helped produce the report Half Our Future (1963).

Beryl Paston Brown was named DBE in 1967.[http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/44326/supplements/6277 London Gazette issue #44326, published 2 June 1967, p. 9] She retired to Lewes, East Sussex, where she became an Open University tutor and was awarded an Open University honorary degree.[http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101067368 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography profile, entitled "Brown, Dame Beryl Paston (1909–1997)", online edition]; first published September 2004.

• "Literature as Medium for the Synthesis of School and Society" (1946){{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Beryl Paston |date=1946-01-01 |title=V: Literature as Medium for the Synthesis of School and Society |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1946.tb02620.x |journal=The Sociological Review |language=EN |volume=a38 |issue=1-4 |pages=10–19 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-954X.1946.tb02620.x |issn=0038-0261|url-access=subscription }}
• "‘Participation’‐‐and College Government" (1971){{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Dame Beryl Paston |date=1971-04-01 |title=‘Participation’‐‐and College Government |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305764710010201 |journal=Cambridge Journal of Education |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=50–59 |doi=10.1080/0305764710010201 |issn=0305-764X|url-access=subscription }}
• Teacher Education for a Multi-Cultural Society (1978, report)Community Relations Commission of Great Britain, Working Party, and Beryl Paston-Brown. Teacher Education for a Multi-cultural Society. CRE, 1978.

Dame Beryl Paston Brown died in Lewes, East Sussex in 1997, aged 88. Homerton College has a portrait of Paston Brown, painted by Richard P. Cook.{{Cite web |title=Dame Beryl Paston Brown (1909–1997), Principal of Homerton College (1961–1971) |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/dame-beryl-paston-brown-19091997-principal-of-homerton-college-19611971-135030 |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Art UK |language=en}}

• [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp85820/dame-beryl-paston-brown A 1967 photograph of Beryl Paston Brown] by Walter Bird, at the National Portrait Gallery
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110716200046/http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/09051301.html Homerton College archived records site]

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| title=Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge

| years=1961–1971

| before=Alice Havergal Skillicorn

| after=Alison Cheveley Shrubsole

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Category:1909 births

Category:1997 deaths

Category:British women academics

Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Category:People from Streatham

Category:Fellows of Homerton College, Cambridge

Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge

Category:Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London