Lee Choo Neo

Lee Choo Neo (Chinese: 李珠娘; pinyin: Lǐ Zhū Niáng; 7 September 1895 – 7 September 1947) was the first female doctor to practice in Singapore.[1] Her father, Lee Hoon Leong, was a merchant.[2] Her mother was her father's second wife, Mak Hup Sin.[1] Lee Choo Neo was also the aunt of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first Prime Minister; his father was her half-brother Lee Chin Koon.[1]

Lee attended Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and Raffles Girls’ School.[3] In 1911 Lee Choo Neo became the first Straits Chinese girl to earn the Senior Cambridge Certificate, and in 1919 she graduated from King Edward VII Medical College, Singapore.[1][4] She originally served as an assistant surgeon, overseeing two women's wards at the General Hospital.[1] However, in 1930, she opened her own clinic on Bras Basah Road, which specialized in maternity care.[1]

In addition to her medical work, she was a founder of the Chinese Ladies' Association of Malaya (later called the Chinese Women’s Association), founded in 1915, which raised funds for war, taught domestic skills, introduced outdoor sports, and sponsored a rescue home for at-risk women.[1][2] She served as the Association's honorary secretary for many years.[1] In 1925 she and two other women were appointed to the Chinese Marriage Committee, which was investigating the need for laws to govern Chinese marriage and divorce in the Straits Settlements.[1] The Chinese Marriage Committee found that women wanted an end to polygamy, while men did not; their findings were a preliminary to the 1961 passage of the Women's Charter, which outlawed polygamy.[1]

Lee Choo Neo died in 1947, and her grave is located in Singapore in the Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery.[5]

The Singapore Women's Hall of Fame was created in 2014, and Lee Choo Neo was inducted into it that same year, under the category "Health."[1][6]