Josephine Coning was born in 1878, the daughter of Thomas Coning, JP. She was educated successively at the Friends’ School, Ackworth, and the Mount School, York (both Quaker schools). Soon after leaving the latter she lived for a time in Dresden with her sister Kittie, taking music lessons from Martin Knause, a pupil of Liszt. She then taught, chiefly music, for a year in Kendal. Josephine Coning then studied English at Somerville College, Oxford, from 1903-1906, followed by lecturing in English at Goldsmiths’ College, London, 1906-14. Whilst at Goldsmiths’ she resigned her membership of the Society of Friends (she became a member of the Church of England in 1927). She resigned from Goldsmiths’ because of ill health and returned to York where she worked for William Sessions Ltd (formerly The Ebor Press, a Quaker printing firm) as a proofreader, as most of the firm’s staff were called up for service during the First World War. After the war she taught until 1927 at Darlington Training College, a teacher training college, under successive principals Miss Hawtry and Sarah Walker. This appears to have been the initial source of mutual interest between her and her friend Julia Pleister. Josephine Coning was also an examiner for Durham University and a voluntary teacher of English at H M Prison, Wakefield. In latter years, Josephine Coning lived with her sister Kittie and her brother-in-law, Bernard Linney, at Dringhouses, York. She died in 1957. These notes are derived from the Somerville College Register entry for E J C and from autobiographical notes in a letter written by E J C to Julia Pleister on 8 August 1954.