Anne Clough was born in Liverpool but lived in the USA from the age of 2 - 16. She became known as one of the foremost leaders of the women's educational movement.
The daughter of a cotton merchant, Clough initially visited and taught the poor. When her father's business failed in 1841, she opened her own school to help pay off the family's debts.
Clough was involved in setting up the London Society for Women's Suffrage and the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and was a founder of the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women.
Clough was the first Principal of the hall of residence for women at Cambridge University which later became Newnham Hall.