THE first woman fellow to be appointed at any traditional, all-male college in Oxford, Carol Clark, has died age 75.

A lover of films, music and walking in the Alps, Mrs Clark was a tutor at Balliol College where she taught Renaissance French literature. She was also the first woman fellow to ever be appointed and stayed at Balliol for more than 30 years.

Carol Elizabeth Clark (nee Gallagher) was born in Glasgow on November 25, 1940. Her father was an engineer and her mother was a bookkeeper.

She studied at St Joseph’s Convent boarding school in Girvan, before enrolling at the University of Glasgow aged 16 to study French, Italian, and history of fine arts.

In October 1959 she took up residency in Oxford and graduated in French and Italian with first-class honours. In 1963, she married David Blair Clark and their son Paul was born two years later.

Mrs Clark loved teaching from the very start of her career and taught in various schools in London and later in Bamako, West Africa.

In 1966 she received a research scholarship at the University of London, where she gained her PhD in 1971. In the same year, her husband died.

In October 1973, Mrs Clark was elected as the first woman fellow of any ancient college in Oxford, after being accepted into Balliol College. She stayed at the college for more than 30 years and was renowned for being particularly good at choosing her future students.

Outside of work she had a keen interest in films, music and literature. She also liked walking in the Alps or in the Apennines, and swimming.

During the 1970s she published two essays in scholarly journals and also wrote her first book, dedicated to her mother. She wrote a second book in 1983 and also did some translation work.

In 1995, Mrs Clark’s translation of Baudelaire’s Selected Poems appeared for Penguin Classics.

Despite teaching for the next three years at Balliol, she also found the time to edit, together with former Balliol student Robert Sykes, Baudelaire in English, an anthology of poems by the French poet. Her translation of La prisonnière for Penguin Books was then published in 2002.

In 1999, Paul’s son Gabriel was born.

The book Mrs Clark was most proud of was written in 2012 and titled French Literature: A Beginners’ Guide. She knew it would be of great use to her students.

After retiring in 2004, Mrs Clark moved to Paris. There she became a member of the American Church choir, enrolled in art classes and did a bit of private teaching.

In 2006, she moved to Faversham to be near her son and his family, volunteered at local schools and joined a choir.

When Paul moved to Canada in 2011, she returned to Oxford and bought a house near Iffley and was made a Lecturer in French at St Peter’s College. Three years after this, she was made a lecturer at Merton.

Mrs Clark died on June 20, 2015. Only six days previous, she had spent the afternoon singing with a chapel choir before being taken seriously ill and rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital. She never regained consciousness and died in the early hours of June 20.

She is survived by her son Paul and her grandson Gabriel.

Her funeral was held on June 29 at Balliol Chapel.