List of principals of Somerville College, Oxford

The head of Somerville College, University of Oxford, is the Principal. The current principal is Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon who took up the appointment in August 2017, succeeding Alice Prochaska.

Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

Name	Birth	Death	Principal between	Notes
Madeleine Shaw-Lefèvre	1835	1914	1879–1889	First Principal of Somerville Hall
Agnes Catherine Maitland	1850	1906	1889–1906	Second Principal of Somerville Hall, and first Principal of Somerville College, from 1894; introduced the tutorial system to Somerville
Emily Penrose	1858	1942	1906–1926	Classical scholar
Margery Fry	1874	1958	1926–1930	Social reformer
Helen Darbishire	1881	1961	1930–1945	Literary scholar
Janet Vaughan	1899	1993	1945–1967	Haematologist and radiobiologist
Barbara Craig	1916	2005	1967–1980	Classical archaeologist
Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth	1921	2010	1980–1989	Spy
Catherine Pestell	1933	2014	1989–1991	Civil servant and diplomat
No principal				As the statutes of the college did not permit the principal to marry, Miss Pestell resigned, married and was re-elected as principal; however there was a two-week period when the college had no principal.
Catherine Hughes (née Pestell)	1933	2014	1991–1996
Fiona Caldicott	1941	2021	1996–2010	First woman to be President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (1993–96) and its first woman Dean (1990–93)
Alice Prochaska	1947		2010–2017	Head Librarian at Yale University
Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon	1955		2017–	Leader of the House of Lords; then Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords

• 
  Emily Penrose
  (1906–1926)
• 
  Margery Fry
  (1926–1930)