Day 69
Dr Grace Ross Cadell
A woman physician when few women studied medicine, a suffragette and advocate of women’s rights, and mother to 4 children adopted during the 1st World War, Grace Ross Cadell was an extraordinary woman.
Find out about her connection to Leith in this short history.
Born in Linlithgow in 1855, Grace Ross Cadell was the oldest of four children. In 1887, both Grace and her sister Georgina (known as Ina) were admitted to the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, set up by Scotland’s first licensed female doctor Sophia Jex-Blake.
Jex-Blake had fought for the right for women to study and become qualified in medical studies, and was one of the Edinburgh Seven, who led a campaign to open universities to women. She opened the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in 1886 to enable other women to study medicine. Unfortunately, the Royal Infirmary was still against the teaching of female medical students and refused access to students of Jex-Blake in gaining practical experience on the wards. Jex-Blake instead approached Leith Hospital (Day 15) and it was here in Leith that many early female medical students gained their training and medical experience - including Grace Cadell.
This was one of several medical schools set up to provide what was known as extramural teaching - basically teaching outside of a university classroom. This allowed women and others who wanted to study medicine in Edinburgh a way to do so before the Edinburgh University medical faculty began accepting female students in 1892. The classes were taught by the same lecturers and medical staff as the university courses, but were external to university programmes and facilities.
Grace and Ina were expelled from Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women following a dispute with Jex-Blake over the fees charged to female students and already high tensions due to strict guidelines for acceptable behaviour and conduct during lectures, examinations, and training. This caused Sophia Jex-Blake to lose some support, and she lost several students to other institutions. One of these was Grace and Ina’s Contemporary Elsie Inglis who opened the Edinburgh College of Medicine for Women, and it was here that Grace completed her studies gaining the Triple Qualification of Scotland (TQ) in 1891.
During her time living and working in Edinburgh Dr Cadell spent many years living in Leith, and as well as her medical work - (much of which she provided pro bono at various facilities including the Hospice on the Royal Mile) became a noted novelist, which generated a large portion of her income.
As well as being among the first qualified women physicians Grace Caddell was a militant suffragette. She was a leader of the march for a ‘Gude Cause’ in 1909, and became medical advisor to those on hunger strike in prison, treating many of her fellow suffragists for the after effects of both the hunger strike and the force feeding they were subjected to as a result. Her patients included Ethel Moorhead who was infamously released into her care following force-feeding at Calton Jail, as were both Edith Hudson and Arabella Scott. Her house at 145 Leith Walk just north of Smith’s Place was well known as a refuge for suffragettes, and was under constant surveillance by the Leith constabulary. It was later demolished and became Allander House.
There are many examples of Dr Cadell’s activist activities as a suffragette. She was the President of the Leith branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1907 before joining the Women’s Freedom League. As a proponent of ‘No taxation without representation’ Dr Cadell refused to pay her taxes, and her possessions were confiscated and sold at the Mercat Cross on the mile - she turned the event into a suffragette meeting.
In another act of rebellion, she refused to stamp the insurance cards of her 5 servants, and was fined £50. She paid up - with a sack of coppers!
The event made the newspapers through fellow suffragettes throwing apples at the judges. Dr Cadell also attended the trials of many of her sister suffragettes and on one occasion was escorted out of the courthouse by 3 sheriffs after ‘causing an affray’ although she was not arrested herself.
Towards the end of the first world war Grace Cadell adopted 4 children from local orphanages. 3 older children, and one baby who she named Grace Emmeline, it is thought after Emmeline Pankhurst.
Dr Grace Ross Caddell passed away 103 years ago today on the 19th February 1918. She was buried in Marchmont Cemetery with her parents and sister. She is well remembered as an inspiration to women of all ages.
Cemetary_Inscription: Photograph of the inscription on the Cadell family grave marker in Marchmont Cemetary By Stephencdickson - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0