| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Cooper

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 2 months ago

This story was written by Rhondda Kelly

 

 

 

NO EASY PATH

 

The life and times of Lilian Violet Cooper, Australia's first Woman Surgeon; 1861-1947

 

 

Lilian Cooper was born in England, the third child and second daughter in a family of eight children. Her father was a military man who eventually became a Lt. Colonel in the Royal Marines Light Infantry. Her mother was Elizabeth Shewell.

 

All the children succeeded in life, the boys going to good schools and university, The girls were taught at home ‘all the accomplishments a young woman would need to run a happy and successful home’. From an early age Lilian was determined to become a doctor. She became a governess to her sister's son but continued to read widely while starting to map out her career.

 

At about this time Lilian met the woman who was to become her lifelong companion, Mary Josephine Bedford. Both young women yearned to go to university. Josephine, knowing of Lilian's desire to become a doctor, aided and abetted her. She found that in one of the society papers of the day a woman doctor answered readers’ questions. Lilian sent a letter asking about freckles, and seemingly as an after-thought added a question, ‘How does one become a doctor?’ The answer was published ‘…the London School of Medicine for Women’. Thus began Lilian's long journey.

 

She had first to pass an examination set by the London Society of Apothecaries, in English, Latin, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Mechanics. As an elective she chose French. From her dress allowance Lilian paid the local schoolmaster to coach her in mathematics and her brother Frank helped her with Latin. One hundred and eighty-seven hopefuls sat for the examination in September 1886 of whom three were women. Lilian was placed 21st with second-class honours. She paid one guinea per subject.

 

Her parents then stopped trying to persuade her not to become a doctor and agreed to fund her course. She went to London and lived at 21 Guildford Street, Russell Square. From there she could walk to the London School of Medicine for Women and the Royal Free Hospital. Josephine Bedford enrolled at the Slade School at University College, seizing the chance to go with Lilian, supposedly to prevent the scandal of a single woman living alone in London.

 

During the course Lilian earned prizes in many subjects and decided early to specialise in the diseases of women, with a strong preference toward becoming a surgeon. She watched every operation she could at the Royal Free Hospital. This was the time when Dickens was writing his graphic stories. Many people in England were poor and women bore continuous pregnancies. Contraception was not mentioned at the London School of Medicine for Women, indeed it was considered immoral.

 

However women still could not sit for medical examinations in England so Lilian sat for her finals in Scotland. At the same time that she passed the Medical School examination she also sat for the conjoint examinations of the College of Physicians and the College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, and the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow. She was aged 29.

 

She then took an assistant's post with Dr. Ashworth at Halstead. Whilst there she made twenty to thirty house visits a day, on foot in all weathers, and conducted morning and evening surgery. As Dr. Ashworth did not like night calls these became part of her duties. She also took on his work at the Halstead Workhouse. She was paid thirty shillings per week and in a few months was exhausted.

 

Providentially at this time the Dean of her Medical School wrote to her mentioning an offer of an assistantship in Brisbane. Lady Musgrave, the wife of a former Queensland Governor, interviewed her and was impressed by her courage, determination and independence. Josephine, who by now had become interested in welfare work for women and children, jumped at the chance to go to Australia with her.

 

They left aboard R.M.S.Lusitania in April 1891 and landed in Sydney in May. They then boarded Aus.N. Aramac arriving in Brisbane on 29th May to a grey day with showers and a temperature of 68 degrees F.

 

At this time Brisbane had a population of 50,075 all of whom lived within five miles of the Post Office. Traffic was horse drawn and included some trams. Sanitation was primitive. Rubbish was dumped at Frog's Hollow between Margaret and Charlotte Streets. In 1864 Frog's Hollow was described as a "lethifemus sink -- a forcing bed of Disease."

 

Scarlet Fever had occurred recently. Typhoid was common but Diphtheria was the worst disease with a mortality rate of 42.2%. However, it was much higher for children under two years, at 76.6%. There were sixty-one doctors in Brisbane.

 

Dr. Cooper was described as tall, thin, with angular features and auburn hair. She wore the same style of dress throughout the years – dark colours, long skirt, high neckline with a tie or bow at the neck. Shy and reticent, her concentration on the situation or the person made her appear brusque. Josephine was the opposite, small and sedate but full of the joys of life. She was said to be strict but fair. Both were concerned with the status of women and children and both were indefatigable workers.

 

On 4th June, 1891, Dr. Cooper was granted registration in Queensland, as Medical Practitioner number 489. She began work and very soon realised that she had ‘jumped from the frying pan into the fire’. Dr. Booth, her employer, had an alcohol problem. She sought legal advice, cancelled her contract within six months and decided to set up her own practice. Women doctors were not yet accepted even by women, and patients were slow to arrive at first. Gradually however they came and found Lilian Cooper caring, meticulous, hardworking and available whenever there was an emergency.

 

Many male doctors in Brisbane did not speak to her, would not see her referrals or give anaesthetic to her patients. However, some who saw her operate praised her skill. Her gradual acceptance in the community helped to raise the status of women.

 

The 1893 flood proved a turning point in the community’s recognition of Dr. Cooper. Both Lilian and Josephine worked tirelessly. Another turning point came when she was elected to membership of the Queensland Medical Society. She was rather quiet at these meetings but really enjoyed the demonstrations and discussion of new techniques, such as X rays.

 

In 1896, she accepted a position of Hon. Medical Officer, Outpatients Dept, at the Brisbane Hospital for Sick Children where she served with the top physicians and surgeons of the day. Later she was a member of the Board.

 

Lilian and Josephine had by this time moved to a home and surgery in The Mansions in George Street where she kept a stable of horses for home visiting. On one occasion her groom got down to adjust some harness, the horse bolted and Lilian was thrown from the carriage and struck a lamppost. She instructed that the press be told, ‘Dr. Cooper suffered no more serious injury than a slight shock.’ In reality she had a fractured skull, severe laceration of the brain and other injuries. Straw had to be laid in George Street to deaden the noise so that she might rest.

 

She made a slow recovery, after which Miss Bedford chose to drive her on her daily rounds. She made night calls riding a bicycle, and country calls were made by train and then horse-back, to patients as far away as Mt. Mee, a distance of sixty miles from Brisbane. In these last instances often the family member had to administer anaesthetic, instruments were boiled on the kitchen stove, and the kitchen or dining room became the operating theatre. Her brusque manner was also illustrated when, in answer to a mother's inquiry about her child she replied, “She couldn't be worse but I'll pull her through.” And she did.

 

Dr. Cooper and Dr. David Hardie became the first medical officers of the Lady Lamington Hospital for Women when it opened on the 1st November, 1900. About this time she became interested in the formation of the Australian Trained Nurses Association. The nurses were of course women, and throughout their lives Dr. Cooper and Miss Bedford took a strong interest in women's welfare.

 

At 40 years of age, after 15 years of practice, Dr. Cooper applied to take her Doctorate of Medicine. It was a gruelling examination, with papers in ten subjects, clinical tests and a viva voce in every subject. She passed.

 

In 1904 the two friends returned home to visit friends and family, and to study in England and the United States of America the latest developments in their various fields. Dr. Cooper was especially interested in hygiene in the milk industry.

 

Dr. Cooper's association with the Mater Hospital came about because the mother of one of the Sisters of Mercy was her patient. Dr. Cooper’s reservations vanished and she went on to have a long association with the hospital as a surgeon and a member of the first Medical Board.

.

When motorcars appeared Dr. Cooper bought an Overland. The ladies tied their hats on with scarves as was the fashion and Dr. Cooper wore a long silk dustcoat. They both drove and took part in rallies organised by other members of the medical fraternity.

 

In 1911 the two undertook another study tour in England and the U.S.A. Dr. Cooper had a letter of introduction from the Queensland Branch of the British Medical Association to the Mayo brothers in Minnesota. Miss Bedford concentrated on the children's playgrounds and committees of management in hospitals.

 

Both women were active members of the National Council of Women and they attended the International Council of Women in Stockholm. Dr Cooper was very interested in a paper by Dr. Helen Shaw on Venereal Disease and the problems of prostitutes. On return she begged the women of Queensland to see that the sexes were always treated equally. At this time she resigned from the Medical Board of the Brisbane Hospital for Sick Children, and to her great satisfaction was appointed an Honorary Consultant.

 

In 1916, The Scottish Women's Hospitals Foreign Service raised £1,000 to set up a hospital. Dr. Elsie Ingliss ignored the objections of the British War Office and set up fourteen hospital field units in Belgium, France, Serbia, Romania and Russia. Dr. Cooper and Miss Bedford joined one of these, high up in the mountains near Ostrovo, under the command of Dr. Agnes Bennett. Ford ambulances were driven by young women, some of whom had never worked in their lives, down mountainous tracks not built for cars let alone ambulances. This activity was organised by Miss Bedford, who became known as ‘Miss Spare Parts’.

 

The doctors operated all day and into the night by lamplight, performing ten amputations in one two-day period. They carried out two hundred operations in the first few weeks, mostly to remove bullets and shrapnel. It was winter and it was cold and wet, tracks were muddy and slippery. The drivers had icicles clinging to their faces and they did lose one ambulance over the side of the road. Dr. Bennett remarked in her diaries that she found it very helpful having these two older women on board, although she remarked in a letter home that, ‘they are not always easy to get on with but their work is excellent. Cooper is indiscreet in some public remarks, which does not do amongst these inexperienced girls.’

 

They moved to Dubrovnik, then to an advance dressing station where Dr. Cooper, who had been working prodigiously, developed bronchitis and was forced to take a couple of weeks rest. In the dressing station in summer the conditions were appalling as now they had dust, flies and sudden storms which carried all the kitchen equipment away. Imagine trying to maintain hygiene in a place like that. They paid tribute to some German prisoners who helped construct buildings out of what they could find. In eight months at the dressing station they had one hundred and fifty-two patients admitted, performed one hundred and forty-four operations and dressed hundreds of wounds.

 

Dr. Cooper operated on any patient presented, including enemy personnel. She received a decoration from Russia for this work, and in 1917 the King of Serbia awarded her the 4th Order of St Sava. This decoration is kept at St. Mary's Anglican Church, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane. Miss Bedford was awarded the 5th Order of St. Sava.

 

Back home in 1918 Dr. Cooper resumed her practice and honorary positions.

 

Miss Bedford meanwhile was also extremely busy. She was Convenor of the Queensland National Council of Women and was on the Committee of the Brisbane Hospital for Sick Children. These two interests – women and children – typify her life work. She was a founding member of the Playground and Recreation Association. The first free supervised playground was opened at Paddington in 1918. This playground also housed the first children's library. The second playground is at Spring Hill on the corner of Water and Love Streets, next door to the Lady Gowrie Child Care Centre. This playground bears her name. In addition, she was for many years the Honorary Organising Secretary of the Creche and Kindergarten Association of Queensland. Dr. Cooper was Vice President.

 

In 1923 Mr. John Corcoran first wrote to and then visited Dr. Cooper alleging her negligence in leaving a pair of forceps, or part thereof, in his wife's abdomen during an operation.

 

Dr. Cooper said to Mr. Corcoran “I suppose you are wanting money.”

 

“Naturally,”came the reply.

 

“Well you will have to prove it,” said Dr. Cooper.

 

Dr. Cooper won the argument with the help of the Sisters of Mercy at the Mater Hospital when it was proved that the forceps in question were of an inferior brand, never provided by the Sisters of Mercy for their operating theatres. It later emerged that Mrs Corcoran had undergone other surgical procedures following the birth of her two children. This case made no difference to her relationship with the Mater Hospital and in 1924 she was appointed Hon. Consulting Surgeon.

 

The houses occupied by Dr. Cooper and Miss Bedford in Brisbane were: a small cottage in Russell Street, South Brisbane, The Mansions, Auckland House, a two storied brick building on the corner of Mary and George Streets and Old St. Mary's, Kangaroo Point which was originally the first rectory for St. Mary's in John Street closer to the river than the present St. Mary's Anglican Church.

 

At the time of the move to Old St. Mary's, the College of Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand was founded. One hundred and twenty-seven top surgeons, proportionally representing each Australian state and New Zealand, formed the college. Dr. Cooper was elected – number 128 – on 17th June 1927. She was the first female Fellow of the College. This was the honour that gave her the greatest satisfaction and pleasure in her life, and she now headed her stationery: LILIAN V. COOPER M.D. F.R.C.S.

 

At 84 she was elected a Fellow of the newly formed Queensland Medical Society. She had retired from her private practice early in 1941, having given fifty-one years service to the community. She died in 1947.

 

Miss Bedford inherited the house Old St. Mary's, and on her death it was given to the Sisters of Charity. On that site today stands Mt. Olivet Hospice. A nearby building, Marycrest, contains the Lilian Cooper Nursing Home.

 

Written by Rhondda Kelly

 

Reference: 1991 Williams Lesley "No Easy Path." National Library of Australia.

ISBN 0 86776 437 6

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.