Elizabeth Gould Bell

Elizabeth Gould Bell was born in Newry, County Armagh, in Ireland in 1862. Her father, Joseph Bell of Killeavy Castle, was a well-known Clerk for the Newry Poor Law Union. Bell's mother, Margaret Smith Bell, was from a farming family located in Carnegat, a town close to Newry.[1]

Elizabeth Gould Bell's son, Lieutenant Hugh (Hugo) Bell Fisher (1897-1917). He died after being wounded at the Battle of Passchendaele.

Elizabeth Gould Bell was one of five siblings. She had two brothers; one of her brothers is known to have been Joseph Bell, a Clerk of the Newry Poor Law Union.[1] Gould Bell also had two sisters, one of whom was named Margaret Bell and also a doctor. Together, Margaret and Elizabeth would go on to become the first women to obtain a medical degree in Ireland. Margaret was a general practitioner in Manchester, for which job she was one of the first women as well. Through Margaret, Elizabeth Gould Bell had a nephew. He was born Douglas Priestly Bill Boyd and later went on to become a radiologist.[1]

In 1896, Elizabeth Gould Bell married general practitioner Dr. Hugo Fisher, at the Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in Belfast.[1] She soon was left widowed, however, when Fisher died of typhoid fever in 1901.

The couple had one son, Lieutenant and Doctor Hugh Bell Fisher, who was born on 5 April 1897 in Belfast. He was a twenty-year-old medical student at Queen's University, Belfast, his mother's alma mater, and a member of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, when he died of battle wounds in a hospital in Belgium after fighting in the Battle of Passchendaele, on 23 November 1917.[1]

Dr. Elizabeth Gould Bell attended Queen's College Belfast. In 1889, Bell completed her one-year study in the Arts Faculty at Queen's College.[2] That same year, Bell and two other students, Bell's sister Margaret Smith Bell and Harriette Rosetta Neil, applied to transfer into the faculty of Medicine, making them three of the first five women to join the faculty of Medicine at Queen's College.[3] After 1889, it became usual for medical students to enroll in medicine classes after they had completed their first year.[3] Bell trained with five other women at the Belfast Royal Hospital until her graduation. Only herself and one other woman went on to received a university degree. Bell graduated in 1893 and after she continued her work in the medical field.[3] At the end of 1893 her name was included in the Medical Directory of Ireland and she became a member of the Ulster Medical Society, which is, as of 2019, still an active society focusing on connecting the medical community in Northern Ireland and promote health sciences.[2]

In the years preceding the birth of her son (1893–96), Bell wrote and published her work "A Curious Condition of Placenta and Membranes." It was for the British Medical Association Northern Ireland branch's annual report, of 1895–1896.[1]

In 1916, Elizabeth Gould Bell joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) to work as a doctor. She was one of the first women to join the group.[4]

Women who worked in the RAMC at the time did not classify or rank as members of the military, but rather as "civilian surgeons." However, they were afforded pay, rations, traveling allowances, and gratuity, which was equal to what "temporarily-commissioned" male officers received.

Therefore, Elizabeth Gould Bell obtained a contract to work for twenty four shillings a day and a gratuity of sixty shillings, for a duration of twelve months.[4]

A month after joining the RAMC, on 2 August 1916, Elizabeth Gould Bell left to the mediterranean island of Malta to work with the Women's Medical Unit, at St. Andrew's Military Hospital.[4] Doctors serving in Malta at the time attended primarily to British, French, Australian and New Zealand soldiers wounded at battle on the Turkish Peninsula, as a result of the allied powers' campaigns to divert German troops' attention from the Western Front to their allies in Turkey.[5]

Shortly before the death of her son, on 27 July 1917, Bell returned to Belfast to work as a general practitioner.[4][1] Her role was as Honorary Physician at the Women's Maternity Home, Belfast Babies Home, and Training School at the Grove, in Belfast. Here, she mostly cared for women and children. Bell also worked as medical officer for the Malone Palace Hospital, homeless residents of Belfast find homes and jobs. In February 1919, Bell became the Medical Officer for a residence hall in Queen's University, which housed Protestant female professors and students.[1]

Towards the end of her professional career, from 1922 to 1926, Bell worked with the Belfast Corporation's Babies' Club welfare scheme, which was a project that donated milk to poverty-stricken mothers.[1]

Bell worked in Belfast until her death in 1934, on 9 July.[1] She was known by many in the medical community for having a "striking personality" and great "intellect."[6] Her obituary described her as "one of the keenest advocates for the postwar movement."[7]

On 11 October 2016, a plaque was placed in front of the Newry Union Workhouse and Infirmary, later renamed Daisyhill Hospital, to commemorate her accomplishments.[1][8]

Dr. Bell was a member of the women's suffrage movement, which fought for women's right to vote. The women's suffrage movement in Ireland began in 1847 and reached its goal in 1922, when women were given equal voting rights.[9] Dr. Bell was most involved with the suffrage movement before World War I.[10] In 1903, Emmeline Pankhursts and her daughters, Sylvia, Christabel, and Adela, established the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).[10] Dr. Bell was a friend of the Pankhursts and an ally of the WSPU.[11] Members of the WSPU, including Dr. Bell, were called suffragettes, and were known for using more militant tactics in their activism than other suffragist groups, like the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).[10] The NUWSS was known for using more peaceful tactics, such as petitions and crafting literature for their cause.[10] Although most groups in support of suffragism joined the NUWSS, the WSPU refused to join the NUWSS because they disagreed with the peaceful tactics of the NUWSS. The WSPU adopted the motto of "Deeds not Words."[10] Dr. Bell befriended Lady Balfour, who was an important suffragist during this time.[10] In 1911, Dr. Bell participated in a WSPU demonstration in London, England. During this demonstration, Dr. Bell and others threw stones through store windows of Swan and Edgar's London Department. Dr. Bell was arrested for this demonstration and was imprisoned at Holloway Women's Prison.[10]

When imprisoned, suffragettes in Belfast went on a hunger strike to protest for voting rights.[11] When all suffragettes were participating in this hunger strike, authorities began to violently force feed the suffragettes, which often resulted in violent sickness.[10] This practice caused an upset in the community, which resulted in the Cat and Mouse Act, or the Prisoners Temporary Discharge for Ill Health Act.[10] This act allowed jail authorities to temporarily release prisoners on hunger strike and re-imprison them once they became healthy again.[10] This act was passed in hopes to control the suffragettes, but many suffragettes released on this act hid from the jail authorities and carried out militant acts while released.[10] In 1912, Dr. Bell became a doctor for suffragettes suffering from force feedings.[11] She specifically worked with patients at the Crumlin Road Jail.[10] For her work with the suffragette prisoners in Crumlin Road Jail, Bell received a certificate from WSPU that thanked her for her service and dedication to the suffrage movement.[10] It is believed that about 1,000 women were involved in the Ulster suffragism movement in 1914, but most suffragette activity decreased at the start of World War I.[10]

"To Elizabeth Bell,

On behalf of all women who will win freedom by the bondage which you have endured for their sake, and dignity by the humiliation which you have gladly suffered for the uplifting of our sex, We, the members of the Women’s Social and Political Union, herewith express our deep sense of admiration for your courage in enduring a long period of privation and solitary confinement in prison for the Votes for Women Cause, also our thanks to you for the great service that you have thereby rendered to the Woman’s Movement. Inspired by your passion for freedom and right may we and the women who come after us be ever ready to follow your example of self-forgetfulness and self-conquest, ever ready to obey the call of duty and to answer to the appeal of the oppressed.

Signed on behalf of the Women’s Social and Political Union,

E. Pankhurst E.Pethick Lawrence".[1]

• Laura Kelly (2012). Irish Women in Medicine, c.1880s-1920s: Origins, Education and Careers. Oxford University Press.
• Margaret Ward (ed.). "Celebrating Belfast Women" (PDF). Belfast Women’s History Tour.
• "Ulster Scots Women in History" (PDF). Ulster-Scots Community Network.
• No 21 (24/B/787), Army Book No 82. Record of Special Reserve Officers' Service (Records of 132 Lady Doctors).
• Macpherson W. G., 1921. History of The Great War, Medical Services General History, Vol I, Chap XIII, The Medical Services in the Mediterranean Garrison pp. 235–248. HMSO London.
• Leneman L., Medical women in the First World War - ranking nowhere. Br Med J (1993); 10: 1592 (Published 18 December 1993).
• Leneman L., Medical Women at war 1914–1918. Medical History 1994, 38: 160–177.
• Fairfield L., Medical Women in the Forces. Part I Women Doctors in the British Forces 1914–1918 War. Journal of the Medical Women Federation 49. 1967; p 99.
• Mitchell A. M., Medical Women and the Medical services of the First World War.
• SA/MWF/CI 59. Medical Women Federation, (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine). Status of medical women under the War Office.
• Women doctors. Hansard House of Commons Debate 2 July 1918; 107: cc1555–6.
• Reports of Societies. Women's service in Malta with the RAMC. BMJ (1919); 2 : 634, (Published 15 November 1919).
• The Medical Directory 1916, 72nd Issue. London J. & A. Churchill.
• 1Hunter Richard H, The Belfast Medical School.