Nationality New Zealander Role Medical practitioner Alma mater University of Otago Died 1968, Oamaru, New Zealand | Occupation Medical practitioner Education University of Otago Name Emily Siedeberg | |
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Born 17 February 1873 Clyde, New Zealand Known for First female medical graduate in New Zealand Spouse(s) James McKinnon (m. 1928, d. 1949) | ||
Emily Hancock Siedeberg-McKinnon, (17 February 1873 – 13 June 1968) was a New Zealand medical practitioner and hospital superintendent. She was also the country's first female medical graduate.
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Life and career
Siedeberg was born in 1873 in Clyde, Otago, New Zealand. She was the third child of Irish Quaker Anna Thompson and Franz David Siedeberg, a German Jewish architect who had emigrated to New Zealand in 1861 and taken up mining. When Emily was three the family settled in Dunedin, her father becoming a successful building contractor. Emily was educated at the Normal School and at Otago Girls' High School, where she held a board scholarship. From an early age she accepted her father's dictum that she should train as a doctor.
Encouraged by her father, she studied medicine and graduated from the University of Otago Medical School in 1896. She did her post-graduate studies at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, and in Berlin. After postgraduate training and work experience overseas, she eventually registered as a medical practitioner and set up a private practice in Dunedin. She was appointed Medical Superintendent at St. Helen's Hospital, Dunedin, and served from 1905–1938.
Dr. Siedeberg was active in community and welfare work. A founding member of the Dunedin branch of the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children in 1899, she was president of the Dunedin branch from 1933 to 1948 and became honorary life president in 1949.
Founder
She was also a foundation member of the:
Personal life
She married James Alexander McKinnon (died 1949) in Los Angeles on 8 October 1928 and would be known as E.H. Siedeberg McKinnon and Emily H. Siedeberg-McKinnon. They had no children.
Siedeberg-McKinnon delivered Janet Frame, the New Zealand author and screenwriter.
Widowed in 1949, she died in the Presbyterian Social Service Association home at Oamaru, New Zealand on 13 June 1968, aged 95.
Recognition
She was awarded a life membership of the New Zealand Branch of the British Medical Association (1929) and of the New Zealand Registered Nurses' Association (1939), a King George V Silver Jubilee Medal (1935) and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1949 New Year Honours.
The street Emily Siedeberg Place in Dunedin was named in her honour in 1993, as part of Suffrage Centennial Year. Siedeberg Drive in Flat Bush, Auckland, was also named in her honour.