Lillias Hamilton

Lillias Anna Hamilton (7 February 1858 – 6 January 1925) was a British medical doctor and writer. She was born at Tomabil Station, New South Wales to Hugh Hamilton (1822– 1900) and his wife Margaret Clunes (née Innes). After attending school in Ayr and then Cheltenham Ladies' College, she trained first as a nurse, in Liverpool, before going on to study medicine in Scotland, qualifying as a Doctor of Medicine in 1890.

She was a court physician to Amir Abdur Rahman Khan in Afghanistan in the 1890s, and wrote a fictionalized account of her experiences in her book A Vizier's Daughter: A Tale of the Hazara War, published in 1900.

After a spell in private practice in London, she became Warden of Studley Horticultural College in the years before World War I, taking leave from the College in 1915 to serve in a typhoid hospital in Montenegro under the auspices of the Wounded Allies Relief Committee. Her published works include A Nurse's Bequest, 1907.

Early life and education

Lillias Anna Hamilton was born on 7 February 1858 at Tomabil station, New South Wales, Australia. She was the eldest of four daughters and the third of the eight children of Hugh Hamilton (1822-1900) and Margaret Clunes (1829–1909). Her father was a farmer from Ayrshire, Scotland, and her mother was the daughter of George Innes of Yarrow, New South Wales.

Little is known about Lillias's childhood except that she was two when the family left Australia and settled, nominally, in Ayr, Scotland. The Hamilton's continued to travel until they moved to Cheltenham in 1874. Lillias attended the Ladies' College of Cheltenham for four years. Hamilton began to travel and even worked as a teacher, but in 1883, she began training as a nurse at the Liverpool workhouse infirmary.

Despite much prejudice against female physicians practising in Europe, there was a substantial need for female doctors in India, as religious custom and practice deprived many women of proper medical care. Hamilton had met Colonel Joubert of the Indian Medical Service, and he introduced her to the opportunity of working abroad. Hamilton acquired her medical degree in Brussels and promptly left for Calcutta.

In terms of her medical work, Hamilton made a significant impact on the health of the Afghan population. Not only did she establish a hospital in Kabul, but she was also responsible for introducing vaccination into the country.

Personal life and death Hamilton was claimed to be a highly accomplished and talented photographer and needlewoman, and also enjoyed music, painting, and the theatre.

Hamilton never married. She died on 6 January 1925 at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital, Nice, France, and was buried in the English cemetery on the Saturday after her death.

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