Cara Gascoigne

British physical educator
Cara Gascoigne
Born
Caroline Eleanor Gascoigne

July 1888
Devon
Died
1984
Occupation(s)Teacher, physical educator

Caroline "Cara" Eleanor Gascoigne (3 July 1888 – 1984) was a British physical educator. From 1912 to 1921, she coached at Sweet Briar College, as director of physical training; under her leadership, Sweet Briar students played in the first women's intercollegiate hockey, basketball, and lacrosse games ever held in Virginia. She was inducted into the Sweet Briar College Athletics Hall of Fame posthumously, in 2007.

Early life

Gascoigne was born in Devon, the daughter of William Birch Gascoigne and Caroline Malet Veale Gascoigne. Her father was a clergyman; her mother was born to English parents in South Africa.[1] Cara Gascoigne attended Queen Anne's School, Caversham in 1907,[2][3] and graduated from the Bergman-Österberg Physical Training College in Dartford, Kent, where she was a classmate of fellow lacrosse coach Rosabelle Sinclair.[4][5]

Career

Gascoigne was director of physical training at Sweet Briar College from 1912 to 1923,[6] except while she was serving as a W.A.A.C.[7] during World War I.[5][8] During and after the war, she worked with convalescent soldiers in England.[9] During her time at the college, she started one of the first women's lacrosse clubs in the United States.[10][11] She also played violin in Sweet Briar's orchestra,[4] appeared in campus dramatics,[12][13] and taught lacrosse at a girls' summer camp in Hancock, New Hampshire.[14] She coached her students in Virginia's first women's intercollegiate sports events, in field hockey and basketball.[15][16] After 1923, she returned to England and taught at her alma mater Queen Anne's, where she continued to coach women's lacrosse and play violin "in several orchestras",[17] and in Eastbourne rode her bicycle regularly into her eighties.[5]

Personal life

Gascoigne died in 1984, in her nineties, in England. She was inducted into the Sweet Briar College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.[15] She is also in the Bergman Österberg Union Hall of Fame.[18]

References

  1. ^ Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1910). Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour. T.C. & E.C. Jack. p. 631.
  2. ^ Claydon, Jane. "The Early History of Women's Lacrosse" slide presentation.
  3. ^ Claydon, Jane. "Madame's Girls: Their Role in the Development of Women's Lacrosse" (2021).
  4. ^ a b Sweet Briar College (1916). The Briar patch. Sweet Briar College. Sweet Briar, Va. : Sweet Briar College. pp. 9, 77, 78, 107 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ a b c MacDonald, Katherine (1978). "Lacrosse: 1912 – 1979". Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine: 26–27 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ Crispen, Jennifer (Winter 2007–2008). "Hall of Fame: Cara Gascoigne". Sweet Briar Alumnae Magazine. 79: 16 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ "Athletics". Sweet Briar Magazine. 11: 84. 1919–1920 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ Sweet Briar College (1920). The Briar Patch. p. 138 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ^ "Alumni Notes". Sweet Briar Magazine. 9: 92. December 1917 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^ Ostroth, Amy (6 June 2019). "Ahead of the Game: Sweet Briar Lacrosse". Sweet Briar College | News. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  11. ^ Tometich, Annabelle (1 January 2012). Lacrosse. ABDO Publishing Company. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-61478-715-0.
  12. ^ "Dramatics: Charlie's Aunt". The Sweet Briar Magazine. 7: 243. May 1916 – via Internet Archive.
  13. ^ Sweet Briar College (1920). The Briar Patch. p. 131 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Gable, Martha (1 November 1935). "The Increasing Popularity of Lacrosse for Girls". The Journal of Health and Physical Education. 6 (9): 31–60. doi:10.1080/23267240.1935.10625732.
  15. ^ a b Hall of Fame: Cara Gascoigne, Sweet Briar College Athletics.
  16. ^ Sweet Briar College (1990). Sweet Briar Field Hockey Brochure, 1990.
  17. ^ "Class Notes". Sweet Briar Alumnae News. 22: 20. June 1955 – via Internet Archive.
  18. ^ "Our Hall of Fame F – J | Bergman Österberg Union". Retrieved 31 March 2022.