Miss Beatrice Cecilia Harington, the first head of St. Margaret's House, Bethnal Green, died at her home in Oxford on Sunday. She was the elder daughter of the Rev. Dr. Richard Harington, Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, by his second wife, Mary, daughter of the Rev. S.W. Paul, rector of Finedon, Northamptonshire, and was half-sister of the late Sir Richard Harington, Bt., Judge of County Courts, and great-aunt of the present baronet.
A former resident of St. Margaret's House writes :- Miss Harington was one of the first group of cultured Oxford women who started work for women and girls in Bethnal Green in connexion with the Oxford House. Miss Harington and her sister lived at first for a year and a half in rooms in Brady Street, at that time notorious as the scene of one of the Whitechapel murders. Then for three years the workers from Oxford and Cheltenham Ladies' College shared a house, until in 1893 each body founded their own settlement and Miss Harington was appointed head of St. Margaret's House, the first church settlement for women in London. She possessed intellectual gifts much above the average, great personal charm, and ever-ready sympathy. Her religion was one of practice rather than precept ; but in spite of her natural reserve all who associated with her felt its dominating influence to be the mainspring of her life.
