Margaret Amelia Corlis

Margaret Amelia Corlis (c., 1840 – January 6, 1925) was a Canadian-born Australian medical practitioner. She was one of the first women to graduate as a doctor at Queens University, Kingston and she was considered the first woman doctor to practice in Western Australia - travelling on a bitey camel.

Life Margaret Amelia Walker was born in Ontario in about 1840 at Townsend. In 1862 she and Josiah Corlis were married. He came from the same town as her and he was a Baptist minister. However, he wanted to be a doctor so they took in medical students in Montreal and the rents enabled him to study again. In 1869, he became a qualified physician at McGill University.

They moved to Ontario where they had a chemist shop; Josiah practised at the hospital, and they raised four children. Sadly, their only daughter died from diphtheria. In 1881, she decided to be one of the first women to study medicine in Canada. She and her husband hired a housekeeper and in 1881 she enrolled in the medical school at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario. She graduated in 1885 as one of their first five female graduates. They were both employed at the canvas hospital there and she gained bite marks from her camel. which She and the camel used to perform house visits that took her away from home for a week accompanied by the camel's Afghan attendant.