Mary Sturge

Mary Darby Sturge (16 October 1862 – 14 March 1925) was a British medical doctor, known for her pioneering work with alcoholism and championing the importance of preventative medical care. She is credited as being the second woman doctor in Birmingham and was President of the Medical Women's Federation from 1920 to 1922.

Biography Sturge was born in Yardley, Birmingham, on 16 October 1862. Her parents were Sara and Wilson Sturge. She was known as Maida in her family where she was the eldest of ten children in prominent Quaker family in the city. Her grandfather, Charles Sturge, was mayor of Birmingham when she was born. She left to study medicine in 1886 at London University, which had opened to women in 1878.

Sturge became acting honorary surgeon in 1905. She worked at the hospital until 1924, when she retired but remained a consulting surgeon. In 1908, Sturge published, with Sir Victor Horsley and Sir Arthur Newsholme, Alcohol and the Human Body. The book became a popular reference book on alcoholism, selling 85,000 copies in Britain and the USA.

Sturge was an active member of the Birmingham Society for Women's Suffrage.

While president of the Medical Women's Federation from 1920 to 1922 she campaigned for equal pay and the removal of the marriage bar for women in medicine.

She died in Birmingham on 14 March 1925, having suffered from Bell's palsy.