Frances Ivens

Mary Hannah Frances Ivens CBE FRCOG (1870 – 6 February 1944) was an obstetrician and gynaecologist who was the first woman appointed to a hospital consultant post in Liverpool. During the First World War she was chief medical officer at the Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont, northeast of Paris. For her services to the French forces she was awarded a knighthood in France's Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre.

Early life and education Ivens was born in Little Harborough, near Rugby, Warwickshire in 1870, the 5th child of farmer Elizabeth Ashmole (1840–1880) and her husband, William Ivens (1830–1905), farmer and timber merchant.

Ivens entered the London School of Medicine for Women in 1894 at the age of 24, doing her clinical studies at the Royal Free Hospital. She qualified in 1900 with the gold medal in obstetrics and honours in medicine and forensic medicine. In 1902, Ivens qualified MB BS (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery) with first class honours. In 1903 she obtained the degree of Master of Surgery (MS). She had further postgraduate experience in obstetrics and gynaecology in Dublin and Vienna followed by seven years' surgical experience in London at the Royal Free Hospital, the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital (New Hospital for Women) in London, and the Canning Town Mission Hospital for Women in East London. Beds had been specially endowed on the condition that they should be in the care of a woman practitioner.

Surgeon at Royaumont

In December 1914, Ivens volunteered to serve in France as head of the unit of the Scottish Women's Hospital, which was established in the Abbaye de Royaumont under the French Red Cross. She saw the war as an opportunity to demonstrate what women could achieve in the medical field. Before the war, as her practice was confined to women and children, Ivens had not treated men. The excellence of her leadership as Chief and the work of the unit was recognised by the French Army. The bulk of the major surgery was carried out by Ivens and her second in command Ruth Nicholson. The remarkably low mortality rate of 1.82% was lower than similar military hospitals. The Royaumont doctors pioneered a new approach to the treatment of gas gangrene, using X-rays and bacteriology for diagnosis, followed by extensive surgical debridement of the affected tissue. They were also able to use antiserum supplied by the Pasteur Institute in Paris. and later acknowledged how the research, particularly into gas gangrene, was beneficial for her career.

The hospital was inspected and approved by many French generals and government officials, and its reputation was largely due to the leadership of Ivens.

At the age of sixty, she married Charles Knowles, now a widower, whom she had known from student days. They moved to London where she continued a consultant practice until she and her husband retired to Truro in Cornwall.

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 she acted as medical inspector for the Red Cross in Cornwall. In December 1918 she received the Croix de Guerre with palm, the citation reading: "...having ensured, day and night, the treatment of French and Allied wounded during repeated bombardment at Villers Cotterets in May 1918. On the approach of the enemy she withdrew her unit at the last moment to the Abbaye de Royaumont where she continued her humane mission with the most absolute devotion”. She was also awarded the Médaille d'honneur des épidémies. In 1926 she was elected vice president of the Liverpool Medical Institution. The University of Liverpool awarded her the honorary degree of Master of Surgery (ChM) in 1926 and in the same year she became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).