Murray, Lilian (1871–1959)
Murray, Lilian (1871–1959)
First woman to qualify as a dental surgeon in England. Name variations: Lilian Lindsay. Born in London, England, in 1871; died in 1959; attended the Camden School for Girls and the North London Collegiate School; graduated from the Edinburgh Dental Hospital and School, 1895; married Robert Lindsay.
Lilian Murray's decision to enter the dental profession was prompted by an exchange she had with her headmistress, Miss Buss, at the North London Collegiate School for Ladies. Frances Mary Buss had urged her to be a teacher; Murray replied, "I would rather be a——"; she was going to say "hangman," but, oddly enough, "dentist" came out. Buss scoffed: "How absurd, child! There is no such thing as a woman dentist."
Murray entered the Edinburgh Dental Hospital and School in 1892 and qualified as LDS in Edinburgh on May 20, 1895, the first woman to qualify as a dental surgeon in England. (The first woman dental surgeon to practice in England, however, was an American who had qualified in America; Olgavon Oertzen located her practice in Kensington in 1886.) Murray set up her practice at 69 Hornsea Rise in north London. In 1946, Lilian Murray, who would be known as Dr. Lilian Lindsay, was elected the first woman president of the British Dental Association.