| Description | Anne Mercer Watson was born in 1862, one of the twelve children of Mr DM Watson. She attended the University College in Dundee (now the University of Dundee) and was one of the earliest women to study medicine there. She triple qualified in 1899 following which she worked as an assistant at the Dundee Royal Infirmary about six months in 1900. She began working in general practice alongside Dr Laura Stewart Sandeman, with whom she took over the practice of Elizabeth Latto Ewan who was the first woman to practice medicine in Aberdeen. Under the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1909, she was one of thirty-five women appointed to be members of visiting committees of Scottish prisons. She was appointed as a medical officer at Morningfield Hospital in 1913. During the first world war she was involved in the WAAC.
She, along with Sandeman, were admitted as earliest female members of the Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1905. She was also at one time the president of the Federation of University Women at The University of Aberdeen.
She gave many speeches and lectures including on “The Problem of Moral Education for Boys” (1913), appropriate bedtimes for children and her complaints about pointed toed shoes (1916), a speech to the Aberdeen Business Women’s Club (1926) as well as her travels including to the front lines during the First World War (1916), her tour of the Adriatic (1924), her tour around the world (1926) and her trip to Palestine during the early 1920s (1928). She contributed to publications including a ‘Report of a Case of Intermenstrual Dysmenorrhœa’ (1901) and ‘Influenza Epidemic in Q.M.A.A.C. Hostel, Edinburgh’ (1919).
She retired in 1931 after the death of Sandeman in 1926 and moved to Edinburgh. She was a fond traveller and was a member of the council of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and the Edinburgh Women Citizens Society. She died in Edinburgh in 1938.
Contents: Letter of application from and testimonials in favour of Anne Mercer Watson, candidate for the post of Resident Medical Assistant to the Dundee Royal Infirmary. |