Felicia Skene: Oxford writer, prison reformer and friend to the poor

Thursday 11^th May, 8pm
Magdalen College Auditorium

Local historian Liz Woolley tells the story of Felicia Skene, considered by many in Victorian Oxford to be a “local saint”. Skene devoted herself improving the lives of the poor, particularly in St Thomas’s, one of the most deprived areas of the city. She rescued tramps and vagrants from their “eminently unsatisfactory existence” and girls from prostitution. The first woman in England to be officially appointed as a prison visitor, she was a tireless advocate for prison reform, both in the practical help she gave to inmates in Oxford’s gaols, and through her prodigious writing.