Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836 1917), physician, feminist and champion of women's medical education, played a key role in advancing the position of women in British professional life. Elizabeth's determination to qualify as a doctor, despite the many obstacles put in her way by the all-male medical establishment, was characteristic of her strong sense of purpose. Eventually joining the medical register in 1865, she established the St Mary's Dispensary for Women and Children in 1866, adding ten beds five years later as it became the New Hospital for Women. Staffed only by women, the hospital...