21 Facts About Edith Pechey

Mary Edith Pechey was one of the first women medical doctors in the United Kingdom and a campaigner for women's rights.

Edith Pechey spent more than 20 years in India as a senior doctor at a women's hospital and was involved in a range of social causes.

Mary Edith Pechey was born in Langham, Essex, to Sarah, a lawyer's daughter who, unusually for a woman of her generation, had studied Greek, and William Pechey, a Baptist minister with an MA in theology from the University of Edinburgh.

Edith Pechey proved her academic ability by achieving the top grade in the chemistry exam in her first year of study, making her eligible to receive a Hope Scholarship.

Edith Pechey came top of this group and therefore had first claim to a Hope Scholarship.

Edith Pechey had noticed that, as the term had progressed, many of his respected colleagues in the medical faculty began to express resentment of the presence of women in the University.

Edith Pechey therefore decided to award the scholarships to male students who achieved lower grades than Pechey.

Edith Pechey stated her claim to a scholarship and the other women asked that they be granted the standard certificates for their chemistry classes.

Edith Pechey worked for a time at the Birmingham and Midland Hospital for Women, apparently on the strength of her testimonials and successful studies, despite the lack of an official qualification.

At that time the Irish College began licensing women doctors, and Edith Pechey passed its exams in Dublin in May 1877.

Edith Pechey was invited to give the inaugural address when the London School of Medicine for Women opened.

Edith Pechey took a vacation on the river Nile in a dahabeeh and turned this experience into a paper which was published in the Sanitary Record in 1880.

Edith Pechey wrote to Pechey on the idea of working at Bombay as Senior Medical Officer at the Cama Hospital for Women and Children.

Edith Pechey worked to counteract prejudices against women, making the case for equal pay and opportunity for female medical workers.

Edith Pechey campaigned for wider social reform, and against child marriage.

Edith Pechey often gave lectures on education and training for women and was involved with the Alexandra Native Girls' Educational Institution.

Edith Pechey met Herbert Musgrave Phipson, a reformer, wine merchant and a founding secretary of the Bombay Natural History Society as well as the "medical women for India" fund, marrying him in March 1889.

Edith Pechey helped sponsor an advanced education for Rukhmabai, who became one of the first Indian women to practice medicine.

Edith Pechey was at the forefront of the Mud March demonstration organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in 1907, but was becoming ill and soon needed treatment for breast cancer.

Edith Pechey died from cancer while in a diabetic coma on 14 April 1908 at her home in Folkestone, Kent.

Edith Pechey's husband set up a scholarship at the London School of Medicine for Women in her name which was granted regularly up to 1948.