Anderson, Elizabeth Garrett

English physician, the first English woman to qualify in medicine. In 1859 Anderson met the US doctor Elizabeth Blackwell, who inspired her to become a doctor. Unable to attend medical school because of the legal bar on women entering university, Anderson studied privately and was licensed by the Society of Apothecaries in London in 1865. She set up St Mary's Dispensary in 1866 to treat women and children; this later became the Marylebone Dispensary for Women and Children, and was renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in 1918.

Anderson received a medical degree from the University of Paris in 1870, and became the first woman member of the British Medical Association in 1873; in 1876 she was instrumental in getting the British government to change the law to allow women to become doctors through the normal channels. In 1908 she was elected mayor of Aldeburgh, becoming the first woman mayor in Britain. She lectured at the London School of Medicine for Women 1875–97, and was its dean 1883–1903.