Elizabeth Baker, 89 Iffley Road

Oxford Inscriptions: Plaque to Elizabeth Baker at 89 Iffley Road

Plaque to Elizabeth Baker

89 IFFLEY ROAD
formerly 3 CHRISTCHURCH TERRACE
DR ELIZABETH ADELAIDE
BAKER
The first female medical doctor to practise
in The City of Oxord
lived and worked here
From 1893 to 1899

This small plaque Is on the front garden wall of 89 Iffley Road. It was unveiled by St Hilda's College on 8 November 2025.

Elizabeth Adelaide Baker was born at Thaba Nchu in South Africa on 15 December 1872, the daughter of George Baker and Adelaide Eliza Prideaux, who were married at Westminster near the beginning of 1861.

After spending some years in South Africa, her parents moved to Scotland, and on 8 October 1885 when she was aged twelve she was awarded a Second Class Society of Arts Certificate at Anderson's College, Edinburgh in Music (for analytic and constructive harmony, the principles of melody, counterpoints, and thorough bars), and on 30 September 1886 a Third Class certificate.

In 1887 she started to study Medicine at the Medical College for women in Edinburgh, and In October 1889 along with two other women and 52 men she passed the First Surgical and Medical Examination. On 21 March 1890 she won a prize for Practical Anatomy, and in June 1890 she obtained Honour Certificates in the Classes of Practical Anatomy and Physiology, and passed her second professional examination.

89 Iffley Road

On 6 May 1892 the furniture of the late Mr G. Webb at 3 Christ Church Terrace (now 89 Iffley Road, left) was sold by auction, and by 1894 Elizabeth Adelaide Baker was living there.

A notice published in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 17 February 1894 named three additional medical officers who had been appointed the Cutler Boulter Provident Dispensary that had opened in new premises in Worcester Street and Gloucester Green in 1887, and these included “Miss E. A. Baker, L.R.C.P, and S.Edin., 3, Christ Church Terrace, Iffley Road, Oxford.”

In 1897 her application for a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (for which she had qualified in 1892 through the Triple Qualification) was rejected simply because she was a woman.

Elizabeth Baker then moved to Sheffield, and in 1901 her address was 49 Shorbridge Street there.

By 1910 she had moved to Rotherhithe, Surrey (now east London), and on 7 January 1913 she was elected to the executive committee of the London Panel of Doctors.

At the time of the 1921 census she was aged 49 and described herself as a physician and surgeon who worked from home. She was the head of the household at 90 Lower Road, Rotherhithe and her sister Ellen Scott Baker (47), who was a trained nursing sister, lived with her, plus two boarders, one of whom, Helen Shaw (45), was also a physician and surgeon. They had a cook/housekeeper and a housemaid.

Elizabeth Adelaide Baker died at that address on 1 March 1928 and was cremated at Lambeth four days later. Her effects came to £1877 10s. 3d. and her sister Ellen was her executrix.