Louisa Aldrich-Blake

Dame Louisa Brandreth Aldrich-Blake, DBE (1865 - 1925) was one of the first British women to enter the world of medicine. Graduating from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine for Women in 1893, she went on to take the University of London's higher degrees in Medicine and Surgery, becoming the first British woman to obtain the degree of Master of Surgery. Throughout her career, Dr. Aldrich-Blake was associated with the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, becoming the senior surgeon in 1910.

At the Royal Free Hospital, she was the first woman to hold the post of surgical registrar and also acted as an anaesthetist. During the years of the First World War, many of the male surgical staff of the Royal Free went on foreign active service and Louisa took increased responsibility for the surgery, becoming consulting surgeon to the hospital. She was the first to perform operations for cancers of the cervix and rectum.

Aldrich-Blake was devoted to training students of the Royal Free Hospital's School of Medicine for Women, her own alma mater. She became Dean of the School in 1914 and exercised an important influence on generations of women medical students.

The climax of her career came in 1924, when in the jubilee year of the medical school, when she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire; she died the following year.

The Dame Louisa Brandreth Aldrich-Blake Collection is located in the Royal Free Hospital's Archives Centre.