After studying art in Paris, she entered Lady Margaret Hall in 1898 to study Modern History. Graduating in 1901, she was made a research fellow at Somerville College in 1903, and the first beneficiary of the Lady Margaret Research Fellowship, established the previous year by Principal Agnes Maitland. This enabled her to travel to Italy, studying at the British School at Rome. In 1907 she returned to Lady Margaret Hall, initially as librarian and bursar, and subsequently as assistant history tutor. From 1921 to 1937 she was history tutor and vice-principal of Lady Margaret, and from 1928 to 1935 University Lecturer in History. Among her students was the historian Marjorie Chibnall. She authored several works of history, which were notable for including previously unpublished archival material from the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. Her final work, an edition of the "Catalogus Baronum", was completed after her death by Errico Cuozzo.