Watson, Ellen Martha (1856-1880), schoolteacher

Ellen Martha Watson was born at St Pancras, Middlesex, in the first quarter of 1856, the daughter of William Watson, a schoolteacher, and his wife Mary Jane.

She was the first woman to enter mathematics classes at University College, London, where she studied under W. K. Clifford.

Suffering from tuberculosis, she went to Grahamstown in the Cape Colony for the sake of her health in 1879, where she taught briefly at the Diocesan School for Girls and gave evening classes for women. She died there on 3 December 1880, aged 24 years.