Emily Thomson (medical practitioner)

Emily Charlotte Thomson was born in India to parents Emily Plumb Ogilvie and Alexander Thompson, a schools inspector.[1] She was educated in Dublin, Edinburgh and Rouen and, in 1891, obtained qualifications from three medical licensing authorities in Scotland: the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.[1] She achieved the Dublin Licentiate in Medicine in 1892 and, in 1899, graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChM) from the University of Edinburgh.[1]

In 1893, Thomson applied successfully to become a member of the Forfarshire Medical Association and, later, the British Medical Association.[1] She joined Mary Lily Walker in co-founding the Dundee Women's Hospital in 1896 and worked as a medical officer in the hospital along with fellow physician Alice Moorhead.[1][2] Moorhead partnered with Thomson to establish a medical practice at 93 Nethergate in Dundee, later moving to 4 Tay Square in 1901.[3] Together Thomson and Moorhead were the first female doctors in Dundee. Moorhead worked mostly with poorer members of the community, while Thomson tended to the upper classes.[1] After Moorhead's death during childbirth in 1910, Thomson moved practice to 22 Windsor Street in Dundee.[3] She retired from medicine in 1922.[3]

In addition to Thomson's medical achievements in Dundee, she was also one of city's first female drivers.[1][3] She was described by her contemporary Elizabeth Bryson as 'vivid, dark, business-like [and] capable' and her life was the inspiration for the novel Butterflies in December by Eileen Ramsay.[1] In retirement, Thomson moved to Arbirlot where she collected art and antiques until her death in 1955.[3]

• Dundee Women's Hospital
• Women in medicine