An author, academic, and educationalists, Hadow was the Principal of the Society of Home-Students in Oxford (later St. Anne’s College) between 1929 and 1940.
Born near Cirencester, from age 16 Hadow attended Truro High School, and after graduating stayed on as a student teacher. She then read English at Somerville College, Oxford. After gaining a first class honours in 1903, she taught at Bryn Mawr College and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, as well as writing and editing the Oxford Treasury of English Literature, Chaucer and his Times, and volumes of essays on Addison and Goldsmith.
Alongside her scholarly work she developed a life-long commitment to adult education for the study and promotion of social welfare, particularly in rural areas. From these interests came her secretaryship of Barnett House (Oxford’s new centre for social and economic studies and social work training) and her founding of the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, the first body of its kind in Britain. Her time (1929-1940) as Principal of the Society of Home-Students (later St. Anne’s College) saw the Society build for itself for the first time, and move firmly in the direction of the collegiate status achieved in 1952.
She died of viral pneumonia at the age of 65.