Over a year after the Edinburgh Seven first matriculated they had been facing consistent opposition. They had people shouting at them in the streets, had to arrange to attend different lectures at the extra-mural medical college and in October 1870 they were denied permission to ‘walk the wards’ of the Infirmary. This was a decision […]

Born on 22nd September 1834 in London, Isabel Thorne was educated at Queens College, London. After finishing her studies at school, and following the early death of her father, she went on to hold several positions as a governess, providing private lessons in arithmetic and English. Shortly after becoming engaged, she married Joseph Thorne at […]

Edinburgh medical students will be familiar with the name Dr Pechey, as the name chosen by the Medical Teaching Organisation for their social media account, and it does not take much reading on Edith Pechey’s life to realise why. Pechey was born in Essex in 1845, her father was a minister and her mother was […]

There is no doubt that Jex-Blake was a pioneer for women’s rights. Her leading role in the movement that saw the first women being given the right to a university education in Edinburgh speaks volume about her remarkable character as well as the strength and determination she demonstrated throughout her life. She was born in […]

From the very beginning female medical students struggled to find suitable student accommodation. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first registered female doctor (1847) who applied 28 times before finally being accepted to study at the Geneva Medical College, New York, came up against landladies wondering “why she was trying to be a man” and suspecting her of […]

Edinburgh medical school and the healthcare services within Edinburgh have evolved significantly since the late 19th century. Teaching was concentrated around the Old Town and hospitals were smaller and more numerous than the Royal Infirmary and Western General hospitals. With the use of maps, this blog post will explore the important locations of the Edinburgh […]

In this blog post, find out more about women who broke barriers in the US, UK and Europe and who also served as mentors and inspirations for the Edinburgh Seven. Elizabeth Blackwell was a pioneer for women’s education and rights both in her birth country of the UK and in the USA where she lived […]

I always saw myself as a clinician, having had little exposure to research before being persuaded to take time out of surgical training to undertake a period of full-time research. As so often happens, I found this totally inspiring: the chance to make a difference to the long term outcome of patients through relevant and […]