About Sophia Jex-Blake
Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake was an English physician, teacher, and feminist. She led the campaign to secure women access to a university education, when she began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. She was the first practising female doctor in Scotland, and one of the first in the wider United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; a leading campaigner for medical education for women, she was involved in founding two medical schools for women, in London and Edinburgh, at a time when no other medical schools were training women. Jex-Blake returned to Edinburgh, where she leased a house at 4 Manor Place, and in June 1878 put up her brass plate; Edinburgh had its first woman doctor. This second application was approved by the university court and the University of Edinburgh became the first British university to admit women. In 1874, Sophia Jex-Blake helped establish the London School of Medicine for Women, which became the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine for Women, but also continued campaigning and studying.
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