GB 0113 MS-WEBBM - WEBB, Martha Beatrice (1863-1951)

6 volumes; 1 file

GB 0113 MS-WEBBM 1903-1924 [lacking 1910-1923] Collection (fonds) 6 volumes; 1 file Webb , Martha Beatrice , 1863-1951 , medical educator
Martha Beatrice Webb was born on 20 October 1863 in Furness Vale, Cheshire. She was educated at a private school in Stockport until the age of 16. After a four-year period of ill health, she entered Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied natural sciences. She began the study of medicine relatively late in life, having worked for ten years as a teacher at Edgbaston High School, Birmingham. In 1902, at the age of 38, she attended the Birmingham Medical School, as one of the first female students. Part of her education included clinical training at the General Hospital and Queens Hospital. Both in the classroom and in the wards she experienced discrimination due to her sex from her male colleagues, teachers, and some patients. She graduated MB ChB at Edinburgh in 1907, proceeding MD in 1909.

Webb practiced medicine in Birmingham, where she held the post of lecturer in personal hygiene at Birmingham University, and later became the medical officer for the Department of Education. She created the Women's University Club, a social gathering for professional women, and the Women's Medical Society.

During World War One, 1914-18, Webb studied the conditions affecting the health of working girls for the Ministry of Munitions. She published two books on the subject, entitled Health of Working Girls and On Keeping Well.

During Webb's life there were great advances in women's higher education and their establishment as professionals. Webb was a pioneer in social medicine, and played her part in making this progress possible. From 1923-25 she was a member of the council of the British Medical Women's Federation. She also became president of the Birmingham Association of Medical Women, vice-president of the Birmingham Medical Institute, and a founder member of the Birmingham Soroptimists. She actively supported the British Medical Association's (BMA) campaign for equal pay and conditions for men and women.

Webb retired from medical practice and teaching in 1932. She lived to see Cambridge University admit women to full membership in the late 1940s. She died in Birmingham on 14 February 1951.

Publications:
Health of Working Girls (London, 1917)
On Keeping Well
Teaching Children as to Reproduction

Publications by others about Webb:
`To Live History: the Letters of Martha Beatrice Webb, an Edwardian Medical Student', Katharine Appleton Downes (Harvard University BA thesis, 1989)

Donated to the Royal College of Physicians by Miss Margaret C.M. Salman, a friend of Webb's, in January 1972

Webb's letter books compiled whilst a medical student, 1903-1909, containing letters from Webb to her friends, Mrs Annie Lancaster, Mrs Eliza Romiley, and Miss Christabel Cadbury, describing her life as one of the first women students at Birmingham Medical School, including newspaper cuttings regarding Edinburgh University's graduation ceremony, 1907. Webb prefaced each volume with an explanatory note dated 1924.

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English

Webb's letters were the subject of the following thesis and article published subsequently, To Live History: the Letters of Martha Beatrice Webb, an Edwardian Medical Student', Katharine Appleton Downes (Harvard University BA thesis, 1989) andThe Medical Student Days of an Edwardian Lady', Katharine Appleton Downes, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1 March 1995, vol. 273, no. 9, pp.748-49 [JAMA, 1995, pp.748-49]

Sources: Obituary - Dr Martha Beatrice Webb' - British Medical Journal, vol. I, 17 March 1951, pp.590-91 [BMJ, 1951, pp.590-91];The Medical Student Days of an Edwardian Lady', Katharine Appleton Downes, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1 March 1995, vol. 273, no. 9, pp.748-49 [JAMA, 1995, pp.748-49]; `To Live History: the Letters of Martha Beatrice Webb, an Edwardian Medical Student', Katharine Appleton Downes (Harvard University BA thesis, 1989).
Compiled by Katharine Williams Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997. Compiled June 2003; Modified September 2003 Birmingham Birmingham General Hospital Birmingham Medical Institute Cadbury , Christabel , fl.1903-1909 , correspondent of Martha Beatrice Webb Discrimination Edinburgh Educational systems England Equal opportunity Europe Higher science education Lancaster , Annie , fl.1903-1909 , correspondent of Martha Beatrice Webb Medical education Medical personnel Medical profession Medical sciences Midlothian Personnel Physicians Queens Hospital , Birmingham Romiley , Eliza , fl.1903-1909 , correspondent of Martha Beatrice Webb Scotland Social and economic rights Social problems UK University of Birmingham Medical School University of Edinburgh x Edinburgh University Warwickshire Webb , Martha Beatrice , 1858-1943 , née Potter , social reformer and historian x Potter , Martha Beatrice x Webb , Beatrice Western Europe Women physicians Womens education People by occupation People London

Donated to the Royal College of Physicians by Miss Margaret C.M. Salman, a friend of Webb's, in January 1972

Webb's letter books compiled whilst a medical student, 1903-1909, containing letters from Webb to her friends, Mrs Annie Lancaster, Mrs Eliza Romiley, and Miss Christabel Cadbury, describing her life as one of the first women students at Birmingham Medical School, including newspaper cuttings regarding Edinburgh University's graduation ceremony, 1907. Webb prefaced each volume with an explanatory note dated 1924.

Unrestricted

All requests should be referred to the Archivist

• English

• Latin

English

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

• English