User:VD Historian/sandbox/Lydia Henry

Lydia Manley Henry (1891–1985) MB, ChB, MD, DSc was the first woman to graduate from the University of Sheffield's Medical School and the first female assistant in the Sheffield Royal Infirmary’s female VD clinic. She was Assistant Medical Officer of Health for Blackburn, Lancashire, and one of the first women Medical Officers appointed to the new VD Service.

Early life and education

Her medical training was interrupted for a year by acute streptococcal infection developed in the course of her dissection work. However, during the First World War, with so many male medical students and staff enlisting, opportunities for practical clinical experience opened up for women like Henry. Her work in the Sheffield Royal Infirmary was punctuated by a series of Zeppelin raids and accidents in the local munitions works.

War Service

Henry joined the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service and served as an assistant surgeon under France Ivens at the French Red Cross Hospital at the Abbey de Royaumont. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government.