| Biographical/Administrative Information: | Dr Dora Esther Yates (1879-1974) was Honorary Secretary of the Gypsy Lore Society 1935-1974, and a member of the Society from 1907; Editor of the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society 1955-1973; Curator of the Scott Macfie Gypsy Collection 1945-1974; author of the Collection's printed catalogue (University of Liverpool, 1936). Dora Yates was born in Liverpool and devoted her life to scholarship and enjoyed a distinguished academic career of which her vast philological work in Gypsy studies formed only a part. In 1900 Dora Yates became the first Jewish woman to be awarded an MA ( Literature) by an English University, and she was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate of Literature by the University of Liverpool in 1963 in recognition of her many fields of scholarship. Before and during the Second World War she was also Secretary of the University Refugees Committee. After her official retirement from the University in 1945, Dora was appointed Curator of the Scott Macfie Gypsy Collection, which she had largely been instrumental in obtaining for the University Library in 1935. |
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