Elsie Dalyell

Elsie Jean Dalyell (13 December 1881 – 1 November 1948) was an Australian medical doctor who specialised in pathology. During World War I, she served in the Royal Army Medical Corps across Europe, and was appointed an Officer of Order of the British Empire upon the conclusion of the war. In 1927 she co-founded a veneral disease clinic.

Early life and education Dalyell was born in 1881 in Newtown, New South Wales. Her parents were James Melville Dalyell, a mining engineer, and Jean McGregor. She attended Sydney Girls' High School under its first headmistress Lucy Garvin. She matriculated to the University of Sydney, where she studied arts and science for a year, intending to become a teacher, before transferring to medicine in 1906. During her time at the university, she was a resident of The Women's College, which she shortly after described as "the most pleasant [time] in my life".

Career After graduation, Dalyell took a position demonstrating pathology at the university. which took her to London to complete research at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, for research into gastroenterology in children.

Dalyell then took up a senior clinician role with the research mission group of the Accessory Food Factors Committee in Vienna, led by Harriette Chick. There she completed extensive research on paediatric malnutrition-related diseases, including rickets. In 1923 Dalyell returned to Sydney for a lecture tour, but then found she had very few job opportunities.

During World War II, Dalyell organised the Blood Transfusion Service for the Red Cross.

Personal life In her later life, Dalyell lived in Greenwich, New South Wales. Her nieces, Elsa and Lindsay "Jean" Hazelton, lived with her until Jean died by suicide in 1931. Dalyell retired in 1946 and died on 1 November 1948 of hypertensive heart disease complicated by a coronary occlusion.

Selected works