Charlotte Whitehead

Dr. Charlotte Whitehead (Ross) (15 July 1843 – 21 February 1916) was a physician important to Canadian history and Manitoban history for her role as a pioneer for women in medicine, particularly in Manitoba. Despite never being licensed by either the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Quebec or Manitoba, she was nonetheless able to practice medicine in Montreal and Whitemouth for several decades, and served the community in and around Whitemouth to a great degree during the early years of its development.

Early life and family Born in Darlington, England, on 15 July 1843 to her parents Joseph Whitehead and Isabella Gibbons, Ross emigrated to Canada in 1848, settling in Huron County, Upper Canada. When she was seven years old, both her mother Isabella and her younger brother died within three weeks of each other due to diphtheria. Ross attended public school in Clinton, Ontario, and went to finishing school at the Academy of the Soeurs du Sacre-Coeur at Sault-au-Recollet in northern Montreal. At about the time that she was finishing her schooling, her father had begun work with the Canadian Pacific Railway, and had become associated with David Ross, a Scottish immigrant and co-worker of Mr. Whitehead's. At the age of eighteen, Charlotte married Ross, and would bear three children, Isabel, Minnie and Kate, before beginning her medical education.

Medical studies and early career After marrying, Ross would take responsibility for caring for her chronically ill sister Mary Anne, an experience that apparently stimulated her interest in medicine. despite the disapproval of her father. she decided to enrol at the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia in 1870, as no Canadian medical college was open to women at that time. Initially, she decided to leave her children in Montreal to be raised by her husband's family,

Montreal Ross initially decided not to join her husband out west, and stayed in Montreal, instead running a medical practice to treat women and children, becoming the first female doctor to practice within that city.

Whitemouth Medical Practice Ross came to Whitemouth in the summer of 1881 with her five children, and treated her first patient the night after she arrived. Her early patients were mostly men, unusual for a female doctor at the time, which was mainly due to the logging industry around Whitemouth and the results of logging accidents that would occur. Many of these initial procedures involved using her surgeon's skills, amputating legs, stitching wounds and setting broken bones due to the many lumber or axe related injuries to the legs or feet. As the only doctor within a 100-mile radius, she was responsible for a great many people, and would often go above and beyond the call of duty in treating her patients. To get to them, Charlotte would often have to travel great distances without roads, using canoes, ox-teams, horses or sleighs to reach her destinations. The license itself was somewhat contentious, as there had been a recent border dispute between Manitoba and Ontario, with Whitemouth being near the border. The act was brought forward in the Legislative Assembly by way of a Private Members Bill in 1888, and was opposed by William Fisher Luxton, arguing on the grounds that women doctors should only treat women and children, that Charlotte ought to be grouped with midwives in terms of her profession and that the matter ought to ultimately be decided by the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Personal life Ross was an important member of the Whitemouth community, and as a devout Presbyterian she ran the Sunday school that her husband had constructed. She welcomed preachers of all major denominations, including Roman Catholic missionary Albert Lacombe, whom she treated for pleurisy in the early 1880s.

Her granddaughter Edith Ross would present the Dr. Charlotte Ross Gold Medal in Obstetrics, awarded to the student with the highest honours in obstetrics in the Manitoba Medical College. The award would originally be granted by the University of Manitoba Medical Faculty Women's Club, but is now being awarded by Ross's descendants.