Isola Florence Thompson (18 November 1861 – 8 December 1915) was an Australian educator. One of the first two women to graduate from the University of Sydney, she was the first to complete a Master of Arts at the same university.
Family The daughter of Joseph Thompson (1831–1884),Missing Friends, New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime, (Wednesday, 30 April 1884), p. 179.The Missing Schoolmaster, The (Sydney) Evening News, (Monday, 5 May 1884), p. 8.The Disappearance of Mr. Thompson, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph, (Wednesday, 7 May 1884), p. 1.Missing—Tired of Life, The Australian Town and Country Journal, (Saturday, 10 May 1884), p.42. and Elizabeth Hannah Thompson (1831–1889), née Stiles,Deaths: Thompson, The Sydney Morning Herald, (Saturday, 3 August 1889), p. 1. Isola Florence Thompson was born in Newcastle, New South Wales on 18 November 1861.NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Births Registration no.10689/1861. Her father, Joseph Thompson was headmaster there, before moving the family to Albury where he was again headmaster of the public school.
Education She was successful in passing the Department of Public Instruction's entrance exam for teaching. On completing her schooling she was educated at home by her father and later by Mr C. A. Flint MA. In 1882, she was one of the first women to sit for and pass the matriculation examination. Three years later she and Mary Elizabeth Brown were the first two women to graduate from the University of Sydney with a bachelor of arts degree.
She continued studying at the University of Sydney and graduated with a master of arts in 1887, the first woman to achieve this higher degree at Sydney University.
Career On graduation she was employed by Sydney Girls High School as a teacher. Thompson remained on the staff of Sydney Girls High for 29 years, mainly in the role of first assistant (now deputy principal). She retired due to ill health in April 1914 and 400 former pupils of the school attended a presentation in her honour, including Dr Lucy Gullett and Ethel Turner.
Death Thompson died on 8 December 1915 in a private hospital in Stanmore, New South Wales. She was buried in Rookwood Cemetery.
An obituary by Jean in The Sydney Morning Herald, with the subheading "Kind and True", acknowledged Thompson as a "well-loved figure in school history" and noted:
A former pupil, M.W., wrote of how she "helped to mould the personalities of the hundreds of girls who passed through her hands" and remembered her kindness.
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References
DT.1: Candidates for Degrees: Faculty of Arts, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph, (Monday, 16 May 1887), p. 3 HM.1: University of Tasmania, The (Hobart) Mercury, (Wednesday, 23 December 1896), p. 4. HM.2: University of Tasmania, The (Hobart Mercury, (Tuesday, 21 November 1899), p. 3. IN.1: The Lady Bachelors of Art, The Illustrated Sydney News, (Saturday, 6 June 1885), p. 10. JK.1: Kirby, J.C. (1889), "Co-Education in Australia", The (Boston) Woman's Journal, Vol.20, No.25, (22 June 1889), p 200. PA.1: Miss Edith Emily Dornwell, The Pictorial Australian, (Saturday, 1 May 1886), p. 70. TN.1: The University, The Tasmanian News, (Wednesday, 8 April 1903), p. 2.