Elizabeth G. Anderson
English Physician and Pioneer of Women’s Rights
1836 – 1917 A.D.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, an English physician and pioneer of women’s rights. In 1860 she resolved to study medicine, an unheard-of thing for a woman in those days, and one which was regarded by old-fashioned people as almost indecent.

After a course of private instruction, she was repeatedly refused admission to examinations by the Royal College of Physicians and many other bodies, so that it seemed as if she would not be able to gain the necessary diploma permitting her to practice medicine.

In 1865, however, she obtained the license of the Society of Apothecaries, and the following year she was appointed general medical attendant to St. Mary’s dispensary, which soon developed into the new hospital for women, where Mrs. Anderson worked for over twenty years.

In 1870 she obtained the Paris degree of M.D. The movement for the admission of women to the medical profession, of which she was the indefatigable pioneer in England, was extended to every civilized country except Spain and Turkey.

Mrs. Anderson was the first woman of her country to be honored with the office of mayor, having been elected in 1908 to head the city government of Aldeburgh.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.