Elizabeth Helen MacLeod Georgeson (born July 1895) was the first woman to graduate in engineering at a Scottish university – the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

Education

She was born in the West End of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

in July 1895. Her father, Frederick Hugh Georgeson, was a Minister of the United Free Church, so the family later moved to Edinburgh where she undertook her secondary education at Canaan Park College. Georgeson was 21 when she began her career at the

in 1916, over the age of majority and legally an adult, so able to make her own decisions about her education. She may have benefited from the fact that during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

many women were able to take on new roles, and access fields such as engineering. Georgeson graduated with a BSc in engineering in July 1919. She also achieved a 1st class certificate of merit in mechanical engineering and 2nd class certificates in junior engineering labs and engineering fieldwork. In September 1920, Georgeson wrote an article on “The Magic of Mathematics” for The Woman Engineer, the journal of the Women's Engineering Society (of which she was a membe) in which she was described as “one of the first few women to become an articled pupil to a surveyor, with a view to qualifying as a Civil Engineer”. She completed the article with a call to enjoy mathematics more “It is not difficult to see a connection between mathematics and laughter making fun. A brain must be in absolutely tip-top condition to invent really clever nonsense, and the study of mathematics does keep brains truly fit. And the moral of all this, as the Duchess would say, is that we should all work at our maths, it is vitally important to engineers, both directly and indirectly as a brain tonic: and my limited experience of girl engineers leads me to think that we are rather apt to neglect this branch of our craft.”

Career

Once Georgeson graduated, she became an articled pupil to a surveyor, hoping to qualifying as a Civil Engineer. She was listed as head of household at Upper Sunnyside on Lowther Street in Penrith in the 1921 census, taken on 19 June, and gave her profession as a civil engineer pupil employed at the Town Hall, Penrith. Her visitor was fellow female engineering student at Edinburgh, Dorothy Buchanan. Georgeson may have been a member of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society. She later worked in research at the Safety in Mines Research Laboratory in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

and published about her findings. She co-authored 7 papers, her first, in 1925, was on the properties of cement particles, but most of her papers published between 1926-42 were on the properties and behaviour of gases in mines. In 1942 she won the only senior scholarship from the Sir James Caird's Travelling Scholarships Trust, giving her £280 to travel and study. As this was during the Second World War it is probable that she could only have travelled within Britain.

Personal life

Georgeson wrote poetry and her poem, Flotsam, was published in 1952 in a selection of short poems published as part of the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgeson, Elizabeth 1895 births Year of death missing 20th-century Scottish engineers 20th-century women engineers Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish women engineers Women's Engineering Society Engineers from Glasgow