Queer Places:
Agnes Blackadder Hall, St Andrews KY16 9XW, UK
Agnes
Forbes Blackadder (4 December 1875 – 12 May 1964) was a Scottish medical
doctor.[1] Blackadder
became the first female graduate of the University of St Andrews when she
gained her M.A. degree on 29 March 1895.[2] She
was the first consultant dermatologist to be appointed in 1907 at St. John's
Hospital, an appointment which was also notable as one of the first
appointments of a woman consultant at a hospital that was not exclusively for
women.[3] During World
War I, she served as a radiographer at the Scottish Women's Hospital at
Royaumont in France and pioneered radiography of gangrene.[1]
Blackadder was born in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, on 4 December 1875. She was
the daughter of Robert Blackadder, an architect and engineer from Dundee. She
spent most of her early life around Dundee, living in Bellevue, West Ferry and
attending the High School of Dundee.[1][4]
After graduating, she married Dr. Thomas Dixon Savill at the Church of St Mary
Magdalene in Forfarshire in 1901; her husband died in 1910.[1]
Blackadder gained her M.A. degree from the University of St Andrews in
1895, becoming the first female graduate of the university. She continued her
education at the University of Glasgow where she gained both MBChb (1898)
and M.D. (1901).[2][5][6] Whilst
in Glasgow, she won the first prize in Practical Pathology in 1896 and
received First Class Certificates in Materia Medica, Surgery, Midwifery,
Ophthalmology and Insanity and a Second Class Certificate in Anatomy.[1]
After graduating, Blackadder moved to London, where she became a consultant
in dermatology and electro-therapeutics as well as working in radiography. She
became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1904 and was
appointed as a consultant for St. John's Hospital for Skin Diseases and
the South London Hospital for Women and Children.[1]
In 1912 Blackadder was one of three doctors who studied the effects
of force-feeding on suffragists who went on hunger strikes during their
imprisonment, and published medical papers on the subject.[7]
During World War I, Blackadder served as a radiographer at the Scottish
Women's Hospital at Royaumont, France, returning to her position in London
whenever there was a lull in the fighting.[2] She
used a state-of-the-art X-ray car which the hospital had been given, and used
this to understand and alleviate the effects of gas gangrene through prompt
diagnosis and treatment.[1]
While serving at Royaumont, Blackadder borrowed a pianola from Paris and
installed it at the hospital. She noticed that both patients and staff
benefited from playing it and listening to it and she later wrote a book about
the importance of music to well-being. The book, Music, Health and
Character, was published in 1923. It led to the establishment of the Council
for Music in Hospitals.[1]
After the war, Blackadder returned to London and continued to practice
medicine. She edited her husband's textbook, Savill's System of Clinical
Medicine, which she completed in 1942. She also became interested in ancient
history and in 1955 she published Alexander the Great and his Times.[1]
Blackadder died in London on 12 May 1964.[1]
In October 2012 students of the University of St Andrews voted to honour
Blackadder by renaming the university's largest hall of residence Agnes
Blackadder Hall. The hall is the first student hall at St Andrews to be named
after a woman.[8]
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