Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917)

Wikipedia

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman in Britain to qualify as a physician and surgeon. She was also a co-founder of the first hospital staffed by women, the first woman in Britain to be elected to a school board, and the first female mayor in Britain. Although she didn’t live in Islington, the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school is named in her honour.

Anderson was intent on promoting medicine as a woman’s profession, and organised lectures as well as being a member of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women. She was also a passionate suffragette, using her platform as mayor to spread the ideas of women’s suffrage.

The Islington school is honoured to carry on her legacy; you may recognise it from some of our other blog posts, or from Michelle Obama’s visits to the school in 2009 and 2018.