13 Facts About Agnes McLaren

Agnes McLaren FRCPI was a Scottish doctor who was one of the first to give medical assistance to women in India who, because of custom, were unable to access medical help from male doctors.

Agnes McLaren signed the 1866 women's suffrage petition and was secretary of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage alongside her stepmother, Priscilla Bright McLaren.

Agnes McLaren's father had supported the campaign of first women who sought to study medicine at University of Edinburgh and Agnes became friends with Sophia Jex-Blake, one of the Edinburgh Seven.

Agnes McLaren's father did not however, support Agnes' own ambitions in this area.

Agnes McLaren was based with the Franciscan Hospital Sisters when in training, and later converted to the Catholic faith in order to carry out missionary work even though Roman Catholic law still prevented its sisters-in-vows from being doctors until 1936.

Agnes McLaren's mother died when she was only three years old.

Agnes McLaren entered the school of medicine at the University of Montpellier in 1876, eventually becoming only the tenth woman in Britain to graduate as a doctor.

Agnes McLaren was a visiting physician at the Cannongate Medical Mission Dispensary in Edinburgh.

Agnes McLaren would spend the summers in Edinburgh and relocate to France in the winter.

Agnes McLaren responded to this problem by establishing the London Committee, a support group of women which helped finance the opening of a small hospital, St Catherine's Hospital, in Rawalpindi.

Agnes McLaren petitioned the Pope and Holy See to lift the restriction and, while waiting for a response, continued looking for women interested in health care abroad.

However, before her death, Agnes McLaren encouraged Dengel to study medicine at the Cork University, setting into motion Dengel's becoming a physician and, years later, her starting a new religious congregation, the Medical Mission Sisters.

Agnes McLaren died in 1913 and was buried in Antibes, France.