Emma Constance Stone (4 December 185629 December 1902) was the first woman to practice medicine in Australia. She played an important role in founding both the Queen Victoria Hospital, and the Victorian Medical Women's Society in Melbourne.

Early life and education

Stone was born on 4 December 1856 in Hobart, Tasmania to William and Betsy Stone. The family moved to Melbourne in 1872. In 1882, Stone met Reverend David Egryn Jones, who had emigrated from England. Moved by the poverty his parish, Jones decided to study medicine, and Constance followed suit. She was forced to leave Australia to study medicine since the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

would not admit women into the medicine course. She graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, and was awarded her MD from the University of Trinity College,

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1888. Jones followed her to Canada to earn his MD.

Career

Stone went on to London where she worked in the

New Hospital for Women The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital and its predecessor organisations provided health care to women in central London from the mid-Victorian era. It was named after Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, one of Britain's first female physi ...

and qualified as a licentiate of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1889. It was her time at the New Hospital which was her inspiration to one day found a hospital that was run 'by women, for women'. In 1890, after she returned to Australia, she became the first woman to be registered with the Medical Board of Victoria. Her sister, Grace 'Clara' Stone followed her into medicine. Clara had been allowed to study in Australia and was one of two women who graduated from the

in 1891. The sisters went into private practice together and both worked at the out-patients' dispensary in La Trobe Street. In 1895, the first meeting of the Victorian Medical Women's Society convened in Constance's house, with Clara taking up the presidency. In September 1896 eleven of Melbourne's women, doctors decided to found the Queen Victoria Hospital for women. Construction of the hospital was funded by a jubilee shilling fund appeal, it officially opened in July 1899.

Death and legacy

Stone married Reverend David Egryn Jones in 1893. She gave birth to her daughter, Constance Bronwen, in 1899. In 1902, Stone fell ill with tuberculosis and died on 29 December, aged 45. Her husband Rev David Egryn Jones MD, and daughter Bronwen, who also became a doctor in London, survived her. A lane in the Queen Victoria Village in Melbourne (known as QV), is named after Ston

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Constance 1856 births 1902 deaths Australian feminists 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Australia Medical doctors from Melbourne Trinity College (Canada) alumni University of Toronto alumni 19th-century Australian medical doctors 20th-century Australian women Infectious disease deaths in Victoria (state) Colony of Tasmania people People from the Colony of Victoria 19th-century Australian women medical doctors