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Bertha Surtees Phillpotts (1877-1932) was Principal of Westfield College from 1919 until 1921, and a member of the College Council from 1922 until 1932.

She was born in Bedford and was educated at home. Despite her lack of formal education, she won a gold medal from the Société Nationale des Professeurs de Français en Angleterre in 1897. She began her studies at Girton College, Cambridge in 1898 and achieved a first in French and German in 1901. A few years later, in 1905, she was awarded an MA degree from Trinity College, Dublin.

Her research focused on Scandinavian history, and her work allowed her to develop her skills in Icelandic. She travelled to Iceland for the first time in 1903, and made several return trips during the following decade, when she pursued walking expeditions across the tundra with female colleagues. Her publications include: Kindred and Clan in the Middle Ages and After (1913), The Elder Edda and Ancient Scandinavian Drama (1920) and Edda and Saga (1931).

From 1906 until 1909, Phillpotts became Librarian at Girton, and in 1913 she became the first Lady Carlisle fellow of Somerville College, Oxford.

In May 1918, Phillpotts accepted Westfield College Council’s appointment as Principal. However, due to the commitments of her wartime post at the British Legation in Stockholm, she did not arrive to begin her work as Principal until the following year. She is said to have lead Westfield brilliantly into the postwar era, and, from the farewell album she received on her departure in 1921, she won great affections from staff and students alike.

She became Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge in 1922, succeeding her aunt, Katharine Jex-Blake. She also lectured in Scandinavian studies from 1926, eventually becoming Director of Studies.

She had a lifelong commitment to improving the opportunities and status of other women students. From 1923-27, she was the only female member of the statutory commission for the University of Cambridge, and from 1926-28 she was a member of the statutory commission for the University of London. She was a member of Westfield College Council from 1922-32.

Phillpotts married Hugh Frank Newall, a Professor of Astrophysics at Cambridge, in 1931. She died a year later.

Papers relating to Phillpott's work at Westfield, including letters, photographs and her farewell album, are held by the College Archives.