Cara Gascoigne
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{short description|British physical educator}}
{{about|the English physical educator|the English writer|Caroline Leigh Gascoigne}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Cara Gascoigne
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| other_names =
| birth_name = Caroline Eleanor Gascoigne
| birth_date = July 1888
| birth_place = Devon
| death_date =
| death_place = 1984
| occupation = Teacher, physical educator
| years_active =
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}}
Caroline "Cara" Eleanor Gascoigne (3 July 1888 – 1984) was a British physical educator. From 1912 to 1921, she coached at Sweet Briar College, as director of physical training; under her leadership, Sweet Briar students played in the first women's intercollegiate hockey, basketball, and lacrosse games ever held in Virginia. She was inducted into the Sweet Briar College Athletics Hall of Fame posthumously, in 2007.
Early life
Gascoigne was born in Devon, the daughter of William Birch Gascoigne and Caroline Malet Veale Gascoigne. Her father was a clergyman; her mother was born to English parents in South Africa.{{Cite book |last=Fox-Davies |first=Arthur Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2VHAQAAMAAJ&dq=William+Birch+Gascoigne&pg=PA631 |title=Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour |date=1910 |publisher=T.C. & E.C. Jack |pages=631 |language=en}} Cara Gascoigne attended Queen Anne's School, Caversham in 1907,Claydon, Jane. [https://cloud.rampinteractive.com/canadianlacrosse/files/Misc%20PDF/Presentation_Slides_-_Jane_Claydon.pdf "The Early History of Women's Lacrosse"] slide presentation.Claydon, Jane. [https://bergmanosterbergunion.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Lacrosse-publication-update-5th-May-2021-web.pdf "Madame's Girls: Their Role in the Development of Women's Lacrosse"] (2021). and graduated from the Bergman-Österberg Physical Training College in Dartford, Kent, where she was a classmate of fellow lacrosse coach Rosabelle Sinclair.{{Cite book |last=Sweet Briar College |url=http://archive.org/details/briarpatch1916swee |title=The Briar patch |date=1916 |publisher=Sweet Briar, Va. : Sweet Briar College |others=Sweet Briar College |pages=9, 77, 78, 107 |via=Internet Archive}}
Career
Gascoigne was director of physical training at Sweet Briar College from 1912 to 1923,{{Cite journal |last=Crispen |first=Jennifer |date=Winter 2007–2008 |title=Hall of Fame: Cara Gascoigne |url=https://archive.org/details/alumnaemagazine791swee/page/16/mode/2up?q=Gascoigne |journal=Sweet Briar Alumnae Magazine |volume=79 |pages=16 |via=Internet Archive}} except while she was serving as a W.A.A.C.{{Cite journal |date=1919–1920 |title=Athletics |url=https://archive.org/details/sweetbriarmagazi11unse/page/84/mode/2up?q=Gascoigne |journal=Sweet Briar Magazine |volume=11 |pages=84 |via=Internet Archive}} during World War I.{{Cite journal |last=MacDonald |first=Katherine |year=1978 |title=Lacrosse: 1912 – 1979 |url=https://archive.org/details/alumnaemagazine4952swee/page/n229/mode/2up?q=%22Cara+Gascoigne%22 |journal=Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine |pages=26–27 |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite book |last=Sweet Briar College |url=http://archive.org/details/briarpatch1920swee |title=The Briar Patch |date=1920 |pages=138 |via=Internet Archive}} During and after the war, she worked with convalescent soldiers in England.{{Cite journal |date=December 1917 |title=Alumni Notes |url=https://archive.org/details/sweetbriarmagazi09unse/page/92/mode/1up?q=Gascoigne |journal=Sweet Briar Magazine |volume=9 |pages=92 |via=Internet Archive}} During her time at the college, she started one of the first women's lacrosse clubs in the United States.{{Cite web |last=Ostroth |first=Amy |date=6 June 2019 |title=Ahead of the Game: Sweet Briar Lacrosse |url=https://sbc.edu/news/ahead-of-the-game-sweet-briar-lacrosse/ |access-date=2022-03-31 |website=Sweet Briar College {{!}} News |language=en-US}}{{Cite book |last=Tometich |first=Annabelle |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jlp3AgAAQBAJ&dq=Cara+Gascoigne&pg=PA32 |title=Lacrosse |date=1 January 2012 |publisher=ABDO Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-61478-715-0 |pages=32 |language=en}} She also played violin in Sweet Briar's orchestra, appeared in campus dramatics,{{Cite journal |date=May 1916 |title=Dramatics: Charlie's Aunt |url=https://archive.org/details/sweetbriarmagazi07unse/page/243/mode/1up?q=%22Miss+Gascoigne%22+sport |journal=The Sweet Briar Magazine |volume=7 |pages=243 |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite book |last=Sweet Briar College |url=http://archive.org/details/briarpatch1920swee |title=The Briar Patch |date=1920 |pages=131 |via=Internet Archive}} and taught lacrosse at a girls' summer camp in Hancock, New Hampshire.{{Cite journal |last=Gable |first=Martha |date=1 November 1935 |title=The Increasing Popularity of Lacrosse for Girls |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/23267240.1935.10625732 |journal=The Journal of Health and Physical Education |volume=6 |issue=9 |pages=31–60 |doi=10.1080/23267240.1935.10625732}} She coached her students in Virginia's first women's intercollegiate sports events, in field hockey and basketball.[https://vixenathletics.com/honors/hall-of-fame/cara-gascoigne/10 Hall of Fame: Cara Gascoigne], Sweet Briar College Athletics.{{Cite book |last=Sweet Briar College |url=http://archive.org/details/1990FHbrochure |title=Sweet Briar Field Hockey Brochure, 1990 |date=1990}} After 1923, she returned to England and taught at her alma mater Queen Anne's, where she continued to coach women's lacrosse and play violin "in several orchestras",{{Cite journal |date=June 1955 |title=Class Notes |url=https://archive.org/details/alumnaenews2125swee/page/n245/mode/2up?q=Gascoigne |journal=Sweet Briar Alumnae News |volume=22 |pages=20 |via=Internet Archive}} and in Eastbourne rode her bicycle regularly into her eighties.
Personal life
Gascoigne died in 1984, in her nineties, in England. She was inducted into the Sweet Briar College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007. She is also in the Bergman Österberg Union Hall of Fame.{{Cite web |title=Our Hall of Fame F – J {{!}} Bergman Österberg Union |url=https://bergmanosterbergunion.org.uk/?page_id=1563 |access-date=2022-03-31 |language=en-GB}}
References
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