Constance Stone

(Emma) Constance Stone (December 4 1856 - 1902) was the first woman to practice medicine in Australia and played an important role in founding the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne.

Stone was born in Hobart. She was forced to leave Australia to study medicine since the University of Melbourne would not admit women into the medicine course. She graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, and was awarded her MD from the University of Trinity College, Toronto. She went on to London where she worked in the New Hospital for Women and qualified as a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries.

In 1890 she became the first woman to be registered with the Medical Board of Victoria. Her sister Clara Stone followed her into medicine, she had been allowed to study in Australia and was one of two women who graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1891. Constance and Clara went into private practice together and both worked at the out-patients' dispensary in La Trobe Street.

In September 1896 eleven on Melbourne's women doctors decided to found a hospital for women. Construction of the hospital was funded by a funded by a jubilee shilling fund appeal, it officially opened in July 1899.

In 1902 Constance fell ill with tuberculosis and died. Her husband and daughter, who also became a doctor, survived her.