Happy International Women’s Day from Rose Hill Lane!

All this week, we’re highlighting some great Canadian women!

Meet Dr. Jennie Smillie Robertson, a Canadian physician and the first female surgeon in Canada!

Born Jane Smillie, near Hensall, Ontario, she became a teacher until she had saved enough money to attend Kingston’s Ontario Medical College in 1906 (integrated into the University of Toronto medical school.) She graduated in 1909, but could find no hospital in Toronto to take her residency. She attended Philadelphia’s Women’s Medical College to do her internship and returned to Canada in 1911. Smillie performed for first Canadian operation in a private home, as hospitals would not giver women such operating privileges.

In 1911, she helped start Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital where she was the chair of gynaecology from 1912 to 1942. She married at the age of seventy and lived until 103.

To learn more, please visit: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jennie-smillie