Plaque appeal to honour city's first female surgeon

A plaque to commemorate a pioneering female doctor is planned for a building in Nottingham.

Margaret Glen Bott qualified in London in 1915 but had to search as far afield as Nottingham to find a hospital that would employ her.

She became the city's first female surgeon at Nottingham Women's Hospital, and also went on to become a magistrate and city councillor, as well as playing badminton for the county.

Sian Trafford, of the Nottingham Women's History Group, which launched a fundraising appeal for the project, said: "She was just an amazing woman and if we don't do something about it there is a risk she will disappear from the history books."

Miss Glen Bott, who was born in Bolton in 1891, had wanted to be a doctor from an early age but faced considerable obstacles, the history group said.

The British Medical Association only admitted women to its membership from 1892, and the Royal College of Surgeons England excluded them until 1909.

Ms Trafford said: "She managed to train at the London School of Medicine for Women but so many hospitals would not accept women at that point.

"So in 1916 she came to Nottingham General Hospital because in World War One injured soldiers were being treated there.

"She set up her own practice in 1919 and became the first woman surgeon at the women's hospital, which was then located on Castle Gate in Nottingham."

She also became assistant surgeon at the Nottingham Children's Hospital and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

She was known for travelling all over the city and county by bicycle early in her career to attend appointments and emergencies.

In 1937 she was made a magistrate, taking particular interest in juvenile cases, and from 1939 to 1958 she sat on the city council.

Miss Glen Bott received an OBE in 1961 and only retired in 1968, a year before she died.

It is the house in which she spent the last years of her life, in Regent Street, which will host the plaque.

The group is already halfway to achieving its £900 goal for the project, and it is hoped the plaque could be installed by March.

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