Edinburgh College of Medicine for Women

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 (TQ) 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.