Born in Edgbaston, Constance Naden was a poet and philosopher and a distinguished student of Mason College from 1881 to 1887. She gained first class certificates in all her examinations and was the first female student to win the Heslop medal. Her particular interests were philosophy, geology and evolution and she was a frequent speaker at college debates, where her speeches were listened to with rapt attention. Later settling in London, Naden entered into scientific circles, and became an early campaigner for women’s suffrage. She died aged 31 on Christmas Eve 1889, following an operation, and is buried in Warstone Lane Cemetery, Birmingham. This bust originally stood in the Mason College Library opposite the bust of Dr. Heslop. Her head and shoulders rest upon three volumes representing her poetic and scientific writings ‘Songs and Sonnets of Spring Time’, ‘The Elixir of Life’ and ‘Induction and Deduction, Hylo-Idealism’.