Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was born in Whitechapel, London on June 9, 1836. She was the second of eleven children of pawnbroker Newson Garrett and his wife, Louisa (born Dunnell). In 1840 Newson Garreett moved his family to the Uplands in Aldeburgh in Suffolk where he developed a successful malting business.

In 1860 Elizabeth Garrett was inspired to study medicine after attending lectures given by the US doctor Elizabeth Blackwell. At the time it was an almost unheard of thing for a woman, and regarded by some as almost indecent. 

Despite failing to gain admission to any London medical school Elizabeth Garrett obtained her degree from the Society of Apothecaries on September 28, 1865. In doing so she became the first female to complete a recognized course of medical training with legal qualifications in Britain. As a woman, Garrett was barred from any hospital appointment or any position as an assistant in general practice.

A portrait of Garrett in the 1860s

After receiving her degree in Britain Garrett became a consultant physician to women and children from her home in London. Although willing to attend male patients, she feared that to do so might create a scandal.

Just before a cholera epidemic reached London, Garrett opened the St Mary's Dispensary, a London clinic that enabled poor women and their children to get medical help from qualified female professionals.

In 1870 Garrett became the first woman to be awarded a medical degree from the Sorbonne University in Paris, two years after France decided to allow women to become doctors.

In 1871 Garrett married James George Skelton Anderson of the Orient Steamship Company, but she did not give up her practice.

Garrett Anderson became the first woman member of the British Medical Association in 1873.

In 1876 she was instrumental in getting the British government to change the law to allow women to become doctors through the normal channels.

Garrett Anderson circa 1889

On November 9, 1908, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became Britain's first female mayor, at Aldeburgh in Suffolk, where she’d retired to.

Her sister Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett GBE led Britain's largest women's rights association, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) from 1897 to 1919. The term 'suffragette' was coined by the Daily Mail to distinguish Emmeline Pankhurst’s militant followers from Fawcett’s peaceful group. 

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson died n December 17, 1917 aged 81 and is buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church, Aldeburgh.

Sources Wikipedia, Hutchinson Encyclopedia © RM 2011. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.