In August 2021 a commemorative plaque was unveiled at 32 Kenilworth Road, Elswick, in honour of Dr Ruth Nicholson. The soon-to-be prominent surgeon was born in this modest terraced house on 2nd December 1884, being the eldest child of Margaret and the Rev.Ralph Nicholson, a local Church of England cleric. Supposedly, she chose to study medicine after her father took her to see an exhibition in Newcastle on the subject of medical missionary work. Her mother, too, was quite determined to secure for all her children a sound and independent future.
This ground-breaking individual was educated locally, first at Newcastle Church High School in Jesmond, then at the city’s College of Medicine. She was the only female graduate from the institution in 1909. Her medical career began in a local dispensary in Newcastle, before she moved on to Edinburgh, followed by a stint at a mission hospital in Gaza.
By the outbreak of World War I she had gathered a fair bit of varied surgical experience, but her gender prevented her from working in British military hospitals. So instead she joined an all-female unit backed by the French government. This organisation, which was run by the Scottish Women’s Hospital (founded by Scotswoman Elsie Inglis, with whom she had worked in Edinburgh) was based at Royaumont Abbey, north of Paris. For the entirety of the war Nicholson worked there as a surgeon, operating on allied casualties, and often working with barely any sleep for days on end (indeed, the number of beds at the hospital peaked at 600). Her considerable efforts earned her the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille d’Honneur des Épidémies.
Post-war she worked for a time as a GP in Birkenhead, then threw herself into obstetrics and gynaecology, eventually becoming a founder member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929 (and thereafter a fellow in 1931 – hence the letters after her name). A prominent position at the University of Liverpool came her way in 1930, and she took on consultancy roles, whilst at the same time running her own private practice. In time, Nicholson rose to become the very first female president of the North of England Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society.
After a long and successful career, Dr Ruth Nicholson died in Exeter on 2nd July 1963, aged 78.
[article taken from Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Tales from the Suburbs - see left-hand column for further details about this book]
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