Catherine Chisholm

Catherine Chisholm (2 January 1878 – 21 July 1952) was a British physician and the first female medical graduate of the University of Manchester. She was instrumental in founding the Manchester Babies Hospital, which was opened on 4 August 1914, contributing to her reputation as one of the founders of modern neonatology practice.

Early life Chisholm was born in Radcliffe, Lancashire, a small town near Manchester. She was the eldest daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie Chisholm, himself a graduate of medicine from the University of Edinburgh, and general practitioner in the area. He was supportive of the idea that women should practice medicine at a time when few women were admitted to university to study medicine; and he encouraged Catherine by taking her on his rounds as a GP. It was based on the model of the London Infants Hospital, but, like the Clapham Maternity Hospital, all the doctors were female.

She was made the first female Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1949, under a by-law that allowed election of "persons holding a medical qualification, but not Members of the College, who have distinguished themselves in the practice of medicine, or in the pursuit of Medical or General Science or Literature". She was also able to persuade the dean of the university of Manchester Medical School to establish Wilfred Gaisford as the first professor of paediatrics.

Following her death the Catherine Chisholm Memorial Lecture was endowed by subscription following an appeal in the British Medical Journal that "some tribute should be paid to her memory and that her many activities in various fields for the welfare and health of children should be commemorated". The trust continues to exist and is administered and presented by the Manchester Medical Society.

Her obituary in The Lancet in 1952 noted: "Many medical women – and men too – owe their advancement to her, for she opened the way and enabled them to move forward with confidence."