Dr Louisa Martindale CBE MB/BS (Lond.), FRCOG, JP was a physician, surgeon and writer.
She also served as magistrate on the Brighton bench, was a prison commissioner and a
member of the National Council of Women. She was also an active member of the Brighton
Women’s Franchise Society. She served with the Scottish Women’s Hospitals during World War
1 and promoted medicine as a career for women. Both she and her sister Hilda were educated
at Brighton High School for Girls, Montpelier.
practice and very soon was asked to join the Lewes Road Dispensary for Women and Children
(which in 1911 became the Lady Chichester Hospital, Brighton Branch) as a visiting medical
officer.
In 1920 she was instrumental in the setting up of the New Sussex Hospital for Women
in Windlesham Road, Brighton, and held the post of senior Surgeon and Physician there
until 1937. In her book, Under the Surface (1909), she discussed the controversial issues of
prostitution and venereal disease. Both “unladylike” subjects at the time.
In 1931, Martindale was elected as President of the Medical Women’s Federation and she was
appointed C.B.E. that same year.
In 1937, Martindale was appointed to the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists as the first woman member in history.