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February 24rd
cicely williams born 1893 died 1992
I make no excuse for including Dr Cicely Williams on this site as well as the one in 2004. She and her work are so important they cannot get too much coverage, so please use all the links on this page to find out more about her.
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I will include on this page information on early women doctors in Jamaica, and hope that others may be able to add to it. I hope to be able to do pages on some of these pioneer women at a later date.
On a visit to
Wolmer's Girls' School.
Listen to a review of 'Scanty Particulars' written for the New Statesman by Patricia Duncker, Jamaican author, who has written a novel on Dr Barry's life.
Expatriate women doctors:
Dr Josephine Bechtinger may have been the daughter of an Austrian doctor,
Joseph Bechtinger. There
is no further mention of
her after 1881, when this
advertisement appeared in
the Gleaner.
I know nothing about Dr Lund except that she was the wife of the Rev W Lund, Anglican clergyman, who served in Porus and St Margaret's Bay. Around 1900 there were references in the papers suggesting that people felt she charged too much for her attention to their ills. She may well be the first qualified woman doctor to practise in Jamaica, and it should be possible to find out more about her.
Dr Josephine Cunin lived for a few years at St Margaret's Bay in Portland, dying there on October 24, 1909. She trained at Bishop's in Canada, and in Edinburgh. I do not know why she came to Jamaica. She was survived by her brother, who died in
Portland in 1924.
Miss Marie Beard, M.B. and Ch.M.Glasgow
University, eldest daughter of Mr. Justice Beard, has applied to be placed on the roll of registered medical practitioners in the colony. Miss Beard, it is understood will engage in active practice and will have the distinction of being the first lady Doctor to set up active practice in this colony. (Gleaner 1911). In 1913 she married Dr M T Cassidy; the couple had their medical practices in Vere.
Jamaican women doctors:
After Cicely Williams came other remarkable Jamaican women: click on their pictures to learn more about them.
. . . and what about women dentists?
click below for probably Jamaica's
first woman dentist.
Receiving Jamaica's Order of Merit
from Governor General, Florizel Glasspole
1976
Jamaican history month 2007
the worthy frog
Joy Lumsden 2007
