“Cheltenham,” says Mrs. Raikes, “largely owed its immunity to the exertions of the Lady Principal, who insisted on re-vaccination where it was necessary for every one connected with the college. This meant not only teachers, pupils, servants, but all who had to do with any college girl in any capacity--all in the homes of the day-pupils--all in the shops which served the boarding-houses--the whole railway staff at the different stations. The College custom was too good to lose and she carried her point. Such a drastic measure had its comic side, as was perceived by the saucy butcher boy, who shouted to a boarding-house cook, “I must know if you are vaccinated before I deliver this meat”. The father of a girl who had an important examination in a few weeks refused to allow her to be vaccinated. The Head refused to keep her, and a cab was actually at the door to take her away when a telegram came from the girl’s father--“May do as she pleases”--which took away the necessity for the cab. For personal honours Dorothea Beale cared not at all, but she valued them because they reflected glory on the College. Towards the end of her life many honours were bestowed upon her. She was greatly honoured at the International Congresses of Education held in Paris in 1889. Later she was made Officier de l’Académie, and in 1890, the Société des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes held its meeting at Cheltenham. Durham University next conferred upon her the distinction of Tutor in Letters. In 1898 she was elected a Corresponding Member of the National Educational Association, U.S.A. An honour unusual for a woman was conferred on Dorothea Beale, in 1901, when she received the freedom of the Borough of Cheltenham. In the words of the Town Council resolution it was decreed:-- “That in recognition of the great work she has done for the education of women in England, and especially of the unique position to which under her direction the Cheltenham Ladies’ College has attained among the educational institutions of the country, Miss Dorothea Beale be, in pursuance and exercise of the Honorary Freedom of the Boroughs’ Act, 1885, admitted to the Honorary Freedom of this Borough.” Dorothea Beale in her reply said:-- “To invite a woman to be a Freeman of a town is, I venture to believe, an expression of the thought that not the individual, but the family with its twofold life, is the true unit and type of the State, that social and civil and national prosperity depend on the communion of labour, and that the ideal commonwealth is realised only in proportion as the dream of one of our poets is fulfilled, and men and women ‘Walk this world Yoked in all exercise of noble ends.’” Shortly after this she was co-opted a member of the Advisory Board of the University of London.