Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Worksheets
Do you want to save dozens of hours in time? Get your evenings and weekends back? Be able to teach about Elizabeth Garrett Anderson to your students?
Our worksheet bundle includes a fact file and printable worksheets and student activities. Perfect for both the classroom and homeschooling!
Resource Examples
Click any of the example images below to view a larger version.
Fact File
Student Activities
Table of Contents
Add a header to begin generating the table of contents
Summary
- Early Life
- Early Education
- Struggles and Achievements in Medicine
- Personal Life
- Later Life, Death, and Legacy
Key Facts And Information
Let’s find out more about Elizabeth Garrett Anderson!
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman in Britain to qualify as a doctor. Born in 1836, she faced many barriers as a woman but found ways to study medicine and earned her license in 1865. She later got a medical degree from the University of Paris and helped start hospitals and a medical school for women. She also became the first female member of the British Medical Association.
Anderson was active in the fight for women’s rights and became England’s first female mayor in 1908. Her work helped more women enter medicine, and many hospitals, schools, and programs now carry her name in her honour.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Early Life
- Elizabeth Garrett was born on 9 June 1836 in Whitechapel, London, as the second of eleven children to parents Newson Garrett and Louisa Dunnell. Newson, originally from Leiston in Suffolk, came from a family of ironworkers. He was not particularly academic but was determined to make his way in the world. After leaving school, he moved to London to find better opportunities, where he met Louisa, the daughter of an innkeeper. They married and started their family, living in a pawnbroker's shop in Whitechapel.
- The family moved a lot as Newson's career grew. Elizabeth’s siblings were born in quick succession, but the first son, Dunnell, sadly passed away at just six months old.
- When Elizabeth was three, the family moved to 142 Long Acre, and Newson’s work as a silversmith and pawnbroker began to improve. In 1841, the family moved to Suffolk, where Newson bought a barley and coal merchant business and began building Snape Maltings.
- The Garretts settled in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, where they stayed until 1852. Newson’s business continued to do well, and more children were born. By 1850, the family was prosperous enough to build a large house. Elizabeth grew up in a time of industrial growth, and the family’s success gave her a sense of possibility and independence.
- Elizabeth’s parents encouraged her to be curious and to think for herself. Unlike many girls of the time, she had the freedom to explore the area around Aldeburgh, including the salt marshes and the beach. This freedom helped her develop a strong sense of independence.
Early Education
- Living in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, where there was no school, Elizabeth was taught the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic by her mother. At age 10, she and her sister had a governess, Miss Edgeworth, who taught them at home. The lessons were strict, with lessons in the mornings and walks in the afternoons. Miss Edgeworth also joined the family for meals, continuing the teaching at mealtimes. Elizabeth didn’t get along with her governess and often tried to outsmart her in class.
- When Elizabeth was 13, she and her sister were sent to a private school in Blackheath, London, run by the step-aunts of the poet Robert Browning. The school taught subjects like literature, French, Italian, and German, but Elizabeth felt there was little focus on science and mathematics. Despite this, she developed a love for reading, enjoying works by famous writers like Tennyson, Wordsworth, and George Eliot.
- After finishing school in 1851, Elizabeth spent the next nine years focusing on domestic tasks, but she continued her studies. She kept up with Latin and arithmetic and read widely, discussing current events with her younger siblings.
- In 1854, she visited friends in Gateshead, where she met Emily Davies, a feminist who would later co-found Girton College, Cambridge. Emily became a close friend and supporter. Around this time, Elizabeth learned about Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in the United States. Blackwell's success inspired her to pursue medicine.
- When Blackwell visited London in 1859, Elizabeth attended her lectures and even met her in private. In 1860, she and Emily Davies discussed their dreams for advancing women's rights, with Elizabeth deciding to focus on breaking into the medical field. At first, Elizabeth’s father didn’t support her dream of becoming a doctor, but eventually he agreed to help her financially and emotionally.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson's Struggles and Achievements in Medicine
- In 1860, Elizabeth began working as a surgery nurse at Middlesex Hospital in London. After proving herself as a capable nurse, she was allowed to attend an outpatient clinic and witness her first operation. However, when she tried to formally enrol in medical school, her application was rejected due to her gender. She was allowed to study Latin, Greek, and pharmacology privately with the hospital’s apothecary, and also hired a tutor to study anatomy and physiology.
Elizabeth before the Faculty of Medicine in Paris
- Despite her growing knowledge, the male students at the hospital petitioned for her exclusion, and she had to leave. Nevertheless, she earned an honours certificate in chemistry and materia medica. She applied to several other medical schools but was rejected everywhere she went due to being a woman.
- Elizabeth finally found a way through a loophole in the rules of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, which could not legally exclude women. In 1862, she was admitted to the Society and, after further private study, passed her medical exams in 1865. She became the first woman in Britain to openly qualify as a doctor, though the Society quickly changed its rules to prevent other women from following her path.
- Unable to hold a hospital position because of her gender, Elizabeth opened her own medical practice in 1865. Although it started slowly, her reputation grew, and she eventually founded St. Mary’s Dispensary for Women and Children. During a cholera outbreak in 1866, people turned to her for medical help. By the end of the year, she had seen over 3,000 new patients.
- In 1870, Elizabeth earned her medical degree from the University of Paris, becoming one of the few women in the world to do so. That same year, she was appointed as the first female physician to the East London Hospital for Children and was elected to the first London School Board. However, the demands of her practice and her growing family led her to resign from these positions by 1873.
- In 1874, she renamed her dispensary the New Hospital for Women and Children, which treated women for gynaecological conditions. She also co-founded the London School of Medicine for Women, the first medical school in Britain that trained women. She became the school’s dean in 1883 and continued to teach there until 1902.
- She was admitted to the British Medical Association (BMA) in 1873. Though there was a proposal to exclude women in 1878, it was rejected, allowing her to remain a member. In 1892, after years of campaigning, women were fully re-admitted to the BMA.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson in 1889
- In 1871, Elizabeth married James George Skelton Anderson, a businessman in the Orient Steamship Company. Unlike most women of her time, she continued her medical career after marriage. The couple had three children:
- Louisa Garrett Anderson (born 1873), a pioneering doctor and feminist
- Margaret Garrett Anderson (born 1874), who died of meningitis as a baby
- Alan Garrett Anderson (born 1877), who later became a businessman
- In 1902, she retired from medicine and moved to Aldeburgh with her husband. After her mother’s death in 1903, they moved to Alde House, where she enjoyed gardening and family time. When her husband died of a stroke in 1907, she remained active in public life.
Later Life, Death, and Legacy of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
- In 1908, Anderson became the first female mayor in England, serving in Aldeburgh. As mayor, she worked to improve the town and continued supporting women’s rights.
- She had been involved in the suffrage movement since 1866, when she helped present a petition for women's voting rights. She joined the first British Women's Suffrage Committee that year and later became part of the National Society for Women's Suffrage. After her husband’s death, she became more active in the cause, giving speeches while serving as mayor. However, she withdrew in 1911 when the movement turned more militant.
- Anderson spent her final years in Aldeburgh, enjoying a quiet life. She passed away on 17 December 1917, at the age of 81. She was laid to rest in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church in Aldeburgh. She achieved several groundbreaking firsts throughout her life:
- First woman in Britain to qualify as a doctor
- First female doctor to practice openly in Britain
- First woman to earn a medical degree from the University of Paris
- First female physician at the East London Hospital for Children
- First woman admitted to the British Medical Association
- First female mayor in England
- Despite her death, her contributions to medicine and education lived on. In 1918, the New Hospital for Women was renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital. It later merged with the Obstetric Hospital in 2001 and became part of University College Hospital. The old hospital buildings now house UNISON’s National Headquarters and the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Gallery.
- Many institutions honour her name. The Garrett Anderson Centre at Ipswich Hospital recognises her Suffolk roots. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, a secondary school for girls in Islington, carries her name.
- Her records are also preserved in the Women's Library at the London School of Economics and the London Metropolitan Archives. The NHS Leadership Academy runs the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Programme, a master’s degree in leadership and management, continuing her influence in healthcare.
Image Sources
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Elizabeth_Garrett_Anderson_%28detail_of_painting%29.jpg/800px-Elizabeth_Garrett_Anderson_%28detail_of_painting%29.jpg
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Elizabeth_Garrett_Anderson_before_the_Faculty_of_Medicine%2C_Paris.jpg
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Elizabeth_Garrett_Anderson.jpg/800px-Elizabeth_Garrett_Anderson.jpg
Frequently Asked Questions About Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
- Who was Elizabeth Garrett Anderson?
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was a British physician and the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain.
- Why is Elizabeth Garrett Anderson important?
In 1865, she broke gender barriers in medicine by becoming the first woman in Britain to qualify as a doctor. She then founded the New Hospital for Women in London, which women ran for women. She helped establish the London School of Medicine for Women and became the first female mayor in England (Aldeburgh, 1908).
- How did Elizabeth Garrett Anderson become a doctor?
Since women were barred from medical schools in Britain, she studied privately with doctors and passed exams through the Society of Apothecaries, which did not explicitly ban women. She later earned an MD degree from the University of Paris in 1870.