Eleanor Elizabeth Bourne

Eleanor Elizabeth Bourne (4 December 1878 – 23 May 1957) was an Australian medical doctor. She was the first Queensland woman to study medicine. She also was one of only 15 women doctors in Australia who volunteered for service in World War I.

Early life and education Bourne was born at South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 4 December 1878, eldest child of John Sumner Pears Bourne, clerk in the Land Commission Court, and his wife Jane Elizabeth, née Hockings. Always an outstanding student, Eleanor Bourne had topped the state in the scholarship examination of 1891, and entered Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School in 1892. Keen to study medicine and unable to find the prerequisite subjects at Girls’ Grammar, she attended Brisbane Grammar School (Boys) in 1896 to complete her secondary education and facilitate tertiary scholarship application. Eleanor was awarded the Sydney University Exhibition in 1896, and this scholarship enabled her to become the first Queensland woman to study medicine.