Nationality Irish, British Occupation Doctor Died 9 July 1934, Belfast | Other names Elizabeth Fisher Years active 1893-1928 Other name Elizabeth Fisher | |
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Born 24 Dec 1862 Newry, Ireland Known for First woman to qualify as a doctor in Ireland Alma mater Royal University of Ireland | ||
Elizabeth Gould Bell (24 Dec 1862–9 July 1934) was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Ireland. She was also a leading suffragette. She was a ‘pioneer of the feminist movement in Ireland’
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Early life and education
Bell was born in Newry, Co. Down in 1862. She was the daughter of Joseph Bell. She had a brother and one sister who also qualified in medicine. Her sister worked as a GP in Manchester.
She matriculated from Queen's college Belfast and in 1893 she graduated MB, BCh, BAO, RUI from Queen’s College, Royal University of Ireland. She was Honorary Physician to the Woman's Maternity home in Belfast and the Babies Home at The Grove Belfast and was involved in the babies clubs welfare scheme.
She published A Curious Condition of Placenta and Membranes for the British Medical Association.
Family
She married Dr Hugh Fisher but he died soon into the marriage. She is a widow by the 1911 census. They had one son Hugo Bell Fisher born in 1898. As a Unionist, she volunteered to work for the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1916 and was put was in charge of the ward in a Malta hospital during the First World War. Her son died of his wounds after the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917.
Political activism
Dr Bell was a supporter of the women’s suffrage movement and a friend and ally of the Pankhursts and Lady Balfour, both prominent feminist figures of the time. She was arrested on a trip to London in 1911 when she threw stones through department store windows as part of the demonstrations. She was imprisoned in Holloway Women’s Prison. She was member of the Belfast Irish Women’s Suffrage Society and the Women’s Social and Political Union. She acted as doctor for the suffragette prisoners in the Crumlin road Jail.
She worked mostly in Belfast with patients who were women and children. She died in Belfast on 9 July 1934.