Lilian Violet Cooper

Lilian Cooper was born in Clapham, South London on 11 August 1861, to parents Henry Fallowfield Cooper, a captain in the Royal Marines, and his wife Elizabeth Shewell.Patrick, Ross. 'The First Woman' in: Horsewhip the Doctor Tales from Our Medical Past. UQ Press, 1985 p 147 She chose to study medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women in 1886. After completing the course in October 1890 she qualified as a doctor at the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, studying also at the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, and the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.

On completing her education at the London School of Medicine for Women, in 1892, Cooper sailed for Brisbane with Mary Josephine Bedford. In June 1891, Cooper applied for registration with the Medical Board of Queensland, becoming the first woman doctor registered in Queensland{{cite news |date=8 June 1891 |title=QUEENSLAND. |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44068311 |accessdate=30 November 2024 |newspaper=Barrier Miner |location=New South Wales, Australia |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=4 |issue=1004}} and the second in Australia. Cooper began her professional career in Brisbane with Dr Booth at his general practice in South Brisbane. However, after 6 months of working with Booth who was, reportedly, inebriated for much of the time, Cooper terminated her agreement with him and set up her own practice. Her actions raised the ire of Brisbane's then (all male) medical establishment who shunned her professionally until 1893 when she was finally admitted as a member of the Queensland Medical Society. She commenced her own practice at The Mansions in George Street in 1893, making house calls in her horse and sulky initially, a bicycle and then in her much-loved motorcar.{{Cite SLQ-CC-BY|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/dr-lilian-cooper-and-ms-josephine-bedford|title=Dr Lilian Cooper and Ms Josephine Bedford|author=Chrissi Theodosiou|date=23 November 2020|website=John Oxley Library Blog|access-date=27 May 2021}}{{Cite web |last=Freeman |first=Jennifer |date=9 October 2014 |title=New Acquisition - List of Motor Cars in Queensland |url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/new-acquisition-list-motor-owners-queensland |access-date=13 May 2022 |website=John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland [blog post] |archive-date=13 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513005158/https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/new-acquisition-list-motor-owners-queensland |url-status=live }} Cooper then worked at the Hospital for Sick Children and the Lady Lamington Hospital for Women in Brisbane, before joining the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in 1905.

Cooper returned to England in 1911 and was awarded a doctorate of medicine by the University of Durham in June 1912. During this period she travelled in the United States and visited Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland and Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

File:Order_of_Saint_Sava_-_Ribbon_bar.svg

During World War I, Cooper volunteered with the Scottish Women's Hospital Service after she was turned down by the Australian Army as female doctors were not wanted. She served on the front line in France, Macedonia and Serbia and was in charge of the ambulance division, with all female drivers (including her friend Mary Josephine Bedford). Operating in tents close to the front line, Cooper was later awarded the Order of St Sava from the Serbian King for her wartime efforts.{{Cite web|url=https://www.qld.gov.au/about/about-queensland/history/women/assets/lilian-cooper-biography.pdf|title=Lilian Cooper (1861-1947)|last=|first=|date=30 September 2014|website=History of women in Queensland|publisher=Queensland Government|access-date=17 March 2016|archive-date=13 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160813091644/https://www.qld.gov.au/about/about-queensland/history/women/assets/lilian-cooper-biography.pdf|url-status=live}}{{Cite web |title=Dr Lilian Cooper and Josephine Bedford: A year with the Serbian Field Hospital |url=https://www.anzacsquare.qld.gov.au/commemorate/anzac-day |access-date=31 March 2025 |website=Anzac Square & Memorial Galleries}}

File:Front and side view of St Mary's, Kangaroo Point, 1930.jpg

After World War I, Cooper and Bedford returned to Brisbane in 1918, later taking up residence in the St Mary’s rectory,{{Cite web |title=Miss Bedford and Dr Cooper – pioneering Queenslanders and St Mary’s parishioners |url=https://anglicanfocus.org.au/2019/11/14/miss-bedford-and-dr-cooper-pioneering-queenslanders-and-st-marys-parishioners/ |access-date=17 April 2024 |website=Anglican Focus |archive-date=17 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240417131659/https://anglicanfocus.org.au/2019/11/14/miss-bedford-and-dr-cooper-pioneering-queenslanders-and-st-marys-parishioners/ |url-status=live }} Kangaroo Point. Cooper became a Foundation Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1928 and Founder of the Queensland Medical Women's Society.{{Cite SLQ-CC-BY|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/dr-lilian-cooper-and-ms-josephine-bedford|title=Dr Lilian Cooper and Ms Josephine Bedford|date=23 November 2020|author(s)=Chrissi Theodosiou|accessdate=27 May 2021}}

Cooper retired in 1941. She died at Brisbane on 18 August 1947 and is buried next to her long-time companion Mary Josephine Bedford at Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.{{Cite web|url=https://graves.brisbane.qld.gov.au/|title=Cemeteries search|publisher=Brisbane City Council|access-date=22 April 2017|archive-date=8 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190308144748/https://graves.brisbane.qld.gov.au/|url-status=live}}

The electoral district of Cooper, created in the 2017 Queensland state electoral redistribution{{Cite web|last=Queensland Redistribution Commission|date=26 May 2017|title=Determination of Queensland's Legislative Assembly Electoral Districts|url=http://ecq.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/70956/26.5.17_Extraordinary-Gazette_QRC-Final-Determination.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029095929/http://ecq.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/70956/26.5.17_Extraordinary-Gazette_QRC-Final-Determination.pdf|archive-date=29 October 2017|access-date=29 October 2017|website=Queensland Government Gazette|page=188}} and the Lilian Cooper Medical Centre in Spring Hill and both named after Lilian Cooper.{{Cite SLQ-CC-BY|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/dr-lilian-cooper-and-ms-josephine-bedford|title=Dr Lilian Cooper and Ms Josephine Bedford|date=23 November 2020|author(s)=Chrissi Theodosiou|accessdate=27 May 2020}}

In 2020, the State Library of Queensland produced an episode on Lilian Cooper and her life achievements for their Dangerous Women Podcast series.{{Cite SLQ-CC-BY|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/dangerous-women|title=Dangerous Women|author=Jacinta Sutton|date=27 May 2021|website=State Library of Queensland|access-date=2 October 2020}}

• Other notable women volunteers in the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service
• Women in World War I
• Australian women in World War I
• The Serbian campaign (1914-1915)

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• {{cite book |last=Williams |first=Lesley M. |title=No easy path : the life and times of Lilian Violet Cooper (1861-1947), Australia’s first woman surgeon / by Lesley M. Williams |date=1991 |publisher=Amphion Press |isbn=0867764376}}

{{Commonscats|Lilian Violet Cooper}}

• [https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/dangerouswomen Dr Lilian Cooper (1861-1947)] - Episode 3 [https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/dangerouswomen Dangerous Women] Podcast. [http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/f/1oppkg1/slq_alma21257914490002061 State Library of Queensland].
• {{cite web|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/dr-lilian-cooper-and-ms-josephine-bedford|title=Dr Lilian Cooper and Ms Josephine Bedford]|website= John Oxley Library Blog|publisher=State Library of Queensland|date=23 November 2020|last=Theodosiou|first=Chrissi}}
• [https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/latenightlive/lilian-cooper-history-doctor-queensland-female/105039318 Rebel, rev-head, trailblazer: Lilian Cooper, Queensland's first female doctor] (11 March 2025). Late Night Live. ABC Radio National.

{{Scottish Women's Hospitals World War One}}

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Category:1861 births

Category:1947 deaths

Category:Medical doctors from Queensland

Category:Australian military doctors

Category:19th-century Australian women medical doctors

Category:Queensland in World War I

Category:Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service volunteers

Category:19th-century Australian women

Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Sava

Category:British emigrants to colonial Australia

Category:20th-century Australian women medical doctors

Category:20th-century Australian medical doctors

Category:Australian fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons

Category:Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons

Category:Australian women of World War I