In honour of International Women’s Day, meet the influential King’s alumni

King’s is a pretty well renowned university so it would inevitably have an impressive collection of alumni to match. It’s hard for any King’s student to forget that John Keats once attended the university given the fact that they named their online system after him.

But on International Women’s Day its all about celebrating the very best and the many powerful women who once graced our campus.

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf was a prominent writer and advocate for women’s rights from the late 20th century. She studied Classics and History here at King’s, who have even named a building after her, capturing the essence of the beauty of London in her essay Street Haunting . I’d recommend a visit to the VWB just to see the scarily lifelike statue of her.

Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale is one of the most prominent alumni that King’s has. She is often referred to as the ‘founder of modern nursing’ and rightfully so since she established the world’s first professional nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital, which is now affiliated with KCL.

Dina Asher-Smith, Laviai Nielsen and Imani-Lara Lansiquot

Dina Asher-Smith, Laviai Nielsen and Imani-Lara Lansiquot studied History, Geography and Psychology, respectively. Whilst doing this, they also all managed to flourish into Olympic athletes who all represented Great Britain at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. With Varsity on the horizon, lets hope we have some hidden gems ready to spring to life and reach the heights of these alumni.

Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu was an Indian politician who is known for her work in the suffragette and Indian independence movements. Whilst studying at King’s at the age of just 16, she quickly became involved with the Suffragettes and became an avid activist.

Throughout her life, she worked closely with many powerful figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and was president of the Indian National Congress (the party that gave India their first female president), making many positive changes in society.

She was even highly regarded for her poetry and became known as the “Nightingale of India.”

Reita Faria

Reita Faria is an Indian physician and model. She won Miss World 1966, making her the first Miss World winner to be a qualified medical doctor!

Farrah Storr

After studying French and English Literature at KCL, Farrah Storr started her very successful career as a journalist and editor. Her previous job roles include being the editor-in-chief of Elle UK and Cosmopolitan. She also launched the UK edition of Women’s Health and in 2017, she was one of seven BAME women to make The Guardian’s list of the ‘1000 most powerful people in the UK’.

Abigail Morris and Georgia Davies

Names that ought to be on everyone’s lips at the moment, Abigail Morris and Georgia Davies are two parts (lead singer and bassist respectively) of the UK’s biggest new band, The Last Dinner Party. They met during Freshers week with Lizzie Mayland of Goldsmiths University before starting their band and adding Emily Roberts and Aurora Nischevi not long afterwards.

The Last Dinner Party released their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy, just last month and have already won a plethora of awards, including the Brit Award for Rising Star just last weekend.

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