18th March - 24th March in Victorian Edinburgh

19th March 1869

On the subject of education, a letter to the editor appears in The Scotsman Newspaper - ‘Could not the immense amount of money now expended in hospitals in Edinburgh be devoted to building schools in the different districts in this city, which every poor child should be compelled to attend?

Education of children was a issue which often found itself in the news during this time.  In poor families children were often needed to go out to work, however the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872, finally made education compulsory for all.

23^rd March 1875

A serious charge was made against a man named Thomas Anderson on this date, that in a ‘fit of passion’ he had seized the ten year old son of his landlord and put him on the fire.  Anderson denied the charge, stating that he had pushed the boy, who then fell against the fire.  The boy however stated that Anderson had forced him upon the fire, but that he had managed to get off before being burned.  The magistrate, stating that Anderson was fortunate that the boy had not been hurt, fined him one guinea.

March 23rd 1869

The Scotsman Newspaper reports - ‘Miss Garrett, who seven years ago strenuously endeavoured to induce the Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh to admit her to study for a degree of Doctor of Medicine, but in vain – who subsequently passed the examinations, and became a licentiate of the Apothecaries’ Company of London – and who has now for several years been in successful practice of her profession in the Metropolis, has, we learn, just been admitted by the Faculty of Medicine of Paris to examination for a degree of M.D….It is curious to have to notice Miss Garrett’s continued success in other quarters at the very time at which we have also to record that another lady applicant is now knocking at the gates of our Scottish Colleges……It may well be that public opinion has now so far advanced in this matter that Miss Jex-Blake’s application to the Medical Faculty of the University will not be refused at all.’

University education for British women had been fairly unheard of prior to 1869, but on the application of Sophia Jex-Blake to attend lectures at the Edinburgh medical school and subsequently being granted permission, the medical school received its first female student. Sophia Jex-Blake later set up a practice at Manor Place in the New Town in 1878, becoming the city’s first female doctor, also establishing a clinic

for poor patients. This clinic later became known as Bruntsfield Hospital.

Edinburgh University Quadrangle (c) Peter Stubbs, Edinphoto