Elgood, Cornelia (1874–1960)

English physician. Name variations: Bonté Sheldon Amos; Cornelia Sheldon Amos; Cornelia Bonté Sheldon Amos; Bonté S. Elgood. Born Cornelia Bonté Sheldon Amos in 1874; died 1960 in London, England; dau. of a judge for Egyptian judicial system; sister of Sir Maurice Sheldon Amos (1872–1940, judicial advisor to Egypt's legal system); London University, MD, 1900; m. Major Percy G. Elgood (writer), 1907.

Fluent in Arabic, was hired by International Quarantine Board of Egypt, the 1st woman hired by the Egyptian government (1901); worked in Quarantine Hospitals at El-Tor in Suez for 2 years; after transfer to Alexandria (1902), opened a free clinic for women and children at a government hospital; transferred to Cairo (1906) and hired by the Ministry of Education to improve the education of Egyptian girls, a program that grew from 3 schools in 1906 to 106 schools by 1923 and was implemented nationally; sponsored 6 Egyptian women to study medicine in England; collaborated with the Countess of Cromer's commission to create the 1st free children's dispensaries in Egypt; served on the board of the Victoria Hospital; fled to London during Suez Crisis (1956) and the nationalization of the Suez Canal. Was the 1st woman to receive an honor from an Egyptian agency for public service (Decoration of the Nile, 1923); made Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1918) and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1939); received a Union des Femmes de France silver medal and a French Medaélle de la Recomissance Française for work for Allied troops in Egypt during WWI.