Maria Grey and her sister Emily Sherriff shared an interest in the Frobelian movement.
Maria Grey, nee Shirreff, was born in 1815 and in 1841 married William Grey, nephew of Earl Grey Prime Minister from 1830-34 and champion of the Reform Act. She took up the twin causes of the professional education of teachers, particularly of women teachers, and the establishment of Education as a field of study. She was the creator of the National Union for Improving the Education of Women of all classes, known as the Women’s Education Union (WEU), a pressure group formed to state a case for women’s rights to professional recognition as teachers. The WEU was sponsored by the Society of Arts and had as its president Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria.