Dr Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 1821–31 May 1910)

British physician and author. Born in Bristol, England, Blackwell moved to America as a child and in 1849 became the first women to be awarded a MD degree from an American medical school (New York's Geneva Medical College). However she struggled to find acceptance in the medical profession, but found employment at St Bartholemew's Hosiptal in London. On returning to New York Blackwell opened a dispensary for poor women and children in 1853. In 1857 she and colleagues founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. In the same year she became the first woman to be placed on the British Medical Register. During her lifetime she lectured and campaigned for social reform, sex education, the education of women in the medicine, anti-slavery and anti-animal experimentation. She also published several important books on the issue of women in medicine, including Medicine as a Profession For Women in 1860 and Address on the Medical Education of Women in 1864. She was interested in spiritualism and Christo-theosophy. Blackwell died at her home in Hastings, England and was buried in the churchyard at Kilmun, Holy Loch in western Scotland.