In 1896 Bon Accord Magazine announced ‘The “New Woman” is asserting herself. A lady doctor has taken up her quarters in Chapel Street’. The lady doctor was Elizabeth Latto Ewan, Aberdeen’s first female general practitioner. She studied in Edinburgh and after qualification undertook further study of midwifery and diseases of women in Glasgow and Dublin.
She began her ladies only practice in Aberdeen in a house owned by her family supplementing her income by acting as a medical examiner for an insurance company. In 1898 she became the first woman member of the local branch of the BMA. In 1899 she married a Dr Gibbs and gave up her own practice to assist him with his. She is commemorated by a plaque at 26 Chapel Street.
