The Edinburgh College of Medicine for Women was established by Elsie Inglis and her father John Inglis. Elsie Inglis went on to become a leader in the suffrage movement and found the Scottish Women's Hospital organisation in World War I, but when she jointly founded the College she was still a medical student. Her father, John Inglis, had been a senior civil servant in India, where he had championed the cause of education for women. On his return to Edinburgh he became a supporter of medical education for women and used his influence to help establish the college. The college was founded in 1889 at a time when women were not admitted to university medical schools in the UK.
Origins
The College was set up as a result of a dispute within the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women. This had been established in 1886 by Sophia Jex-Blake, who was regarded by many of her students as a strict disciplinarian. When two students, Grace Cadell and her sister Martha, were dismissed in 1888 for a breach of rules, they successfully sued Jex-Blake and the school. Another student, Elsie Inglis, emerged as the leader of a group of students sympathetic to the Cadell sisters and increasingly hostile to Jex-Blake. John Inglis her father had a circle of influential friends, including the Principal of the University of Edinburgh, Sir William Muir. They set up the Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women, which soon had an impressive list of supporters and financial backers. The first president was Sir Alexander Christison, who was striving to reverse the anti-female stance of his father Prof Robert Christison.The Association rented a large building at 30 Chambers Street, which was well suited to the needs of the College with lecture rooms and laboratories. The College opened in 1889.
College activities
The College was set up in direct competition to Jex-Blake's Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, which was to close in 1898. It aimed to prepare the women students for the examinations of the Triple Qualification offered by the Scottish medical Royal Colleges. Successful candidates were able to register with the General Medical Council and practice medicine in Britain, throughout much of the then British Empire and in some states of the United States of America. When the Scottish universities allowed women to graduate in medicine, many of the College's graduates were awarded the university degrees of MB, CM until 1899 or MB, ChB thereafter. In the first session the College had 18 lecturers whose lectures covered the syllabus of subjects required by the TQ. The TQ also required a series of clinical placements in a variety of specialities in approved hospitals. The main teaching hospital, the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, refused to allow women medical students on its wards. Jex-Blake's School of Medicine had arranged clinical teaching at a smaller teaching hospital Leith Hospital, and its wards were therefore not available to the College. The College arranged for its clinical teaching at Glasgow Royal Infirmary where two surgeons, Sir William Macewen and James Hogarth Pringle were ardent supporters of medical education for women. There was still much opposition to medical education for women and much of the success of the College resulted from the influential supporters of the Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women. These included the Association's first president Sir Alexander Christison Bt, who ironically was the son of Sir Robert Christison who had been a leading opponent of medical education for women. Among the first Vice Presidents were Dr Robert Craig Maclagan and Sir Robert Philip the pioneer of tuberculosis treatment. In July 1892 the College had sufficient funds and sufficient influence to have two wards in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh opened to the women medical students of the College at a cost of £700. The students were initially taught in the medical ward by Dr William Russell and Dr Byrom Bramwell and in the surgical ward by Mr Joseph M Cotteril. The College merged with the School of Medicine of the Royal Colleges in 1916.
Early lecturers
At the time of the College's foundation there was still opposition to medical education for women. By choosing to lecture at the College the lecturers were effectively making public their support for women in medicine. Most were young men several of whom would become well known in later life. The first lecturers included:
John W Ballantyne who made significant contributions to improving antenatal and perinatal care, publishing over 500 papers and books on obstetrical topics.
William Craig FRSE, FRCSEd became better known as a botanist in later life.
Harvey Littlejohn FRCSEd who became professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and as an expert on medical jurisprudence became an expert witness at celebrated criminal trials.
William Ivison Macadam FRSE, FIC who continued chemistry research and teaching in the extramural school, supporting the cause of women's education until his tragic murder in his laboratory in 1912.
William Russell FRCPE who became Professor of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He was the first to describe the cellular inclusion particles known as Russell bodies.
