FAMOUS JEX LIVES - SOPHIA JEX-BLAKE

FAMOUS JEX LIVES - SOPHIA JEX-BLAKE- WOMENS RIGHTS PIONEER

STORIES OF JEX PEOPLE

A woman who fought for the right of women to become Doctors.

Sophia Jex-Blake the daughter of Thomas Jex-Blake a successful Barrister (retired) and Mary Cubitt. She was born in Hastings in England in 1840. They were Evangelical Anglicans and had traditional views of female aducation, but they eventually agreed to allow Sophia to go to College. In 1858 Sophia started to attend lectures at Queens College, and eventually took on the task of tutoring mathematics. She travelled to Germany and America in this capacity and was impressed by the American c0-education experiments.

In 1868 she decided to train as a Doctor of Medicine, she had returned to England when her father died. British Medical Schools at that time did not admit women. She persuaded Edinburgh University to allow her and her friend Edith Pechy to attend lectures. They suffered a lot of discrimination, but both managed to pass their examinations, however, they could not register as Doctors because the British Medical Association did not recognise women.

In 1876 MP Russell Gurney managed to persuade the British Parliament to recognise the rights of women Doctors by law. The first college to open its registration to women was the Irish College of Physicians and Sophia duly qualified as a Doctor in 1877.

Sophia then joined Elizabeth Garett Anderson in setting up a Medical School for women, Sophia had hoped to be in charge of the College but was replaced by Isabel Thorpe. Sophia cut all links with the London Medical School for Women and moved to Edinburgh where she established a very successful medical practice and played an active role in the Womens Suffrage Society.

In 1899 Sophia retired to Tunbridge Wells in Kent and died in 1912. She campaigned for womens rights until the end of her life.