Name Emily Bovell | ||
Dr Emily Bovell (1841–1885) was a physician and credited as one of the original members of the Edinburgh Seven. After qualification she worked at the New Hospital for Women in Marylebone Road, London. She was the wife of the doctor William Allen Sturge.
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Early life
Born on 21 February 1841, she was the daughter of John Roach Bovell. She was educated at Queens College, London, where she stayed on for a time as a mathematical tutor. Other contemporary students of Queen's College include Sophia Jex-Blake, who she later studied with in Edinburgh.
Medical career
Although credited as one of the 'Edinburgh Seven', her name is absent from the 1869 matriculation records, and the University of Edinburgh Class Prize lists for the 1869/70 academic year (the other women students are listed there). In late 1870 she won a scholarship sponsored by Katharine Russell, Viscountess Amberley, and her obituary states that she joined Sophia Jex-Blake and others at the University of Edinburgh to study medicine in 1871. In 1873 she moved to Paris to continue her studies, when it was no longer possible to continue at Edinburgh, and eventually qualified as a doctor in Paris in 1877. The subject of her medical thesis was "Congestive Phenomena followiing Epileptic and Hystero-epilectic Fits"
She met her husband, the physician William Allen Sturge in Paris in 1877, and they returned to London together, marrying on 27 September at St. Saviour's Church in Paddington. Thereafter they set up a practice together in Wimpole Street, and Emily renewed her relationship with Queen's College, lecturing on physiology and hygiene, and running ambulance classes for ladies. Her husband was a strong supporter of her professional career, and the cause of women's medical education in general. In recognition of her contribution to the medical profession, in 1880 she was nominated by the French Government for the "Officier d'Academie", an award very rarely conferred upon women.
In 1881, in consequence of her poor health, she and her husband gave up their practice in London, and moved to Nice. In 1884 her lung complaint became more serious, and in early April 1885 she died. She is buried in Sainte Marguerite Cemetery in Nice, France.