Elizabeth Taylor Gilchrist was born in Greenock on 23 October 1863 to William and Elizabeth Gilchrist.  She was the third child of the couple.  William had a draper’s business in the town and his children became involved in this work.  The business was well known in Greenock and survived until quite recently.

However, Elizabeth was a scholar and won a place at Edinburgh University to study medicine.  She won a medal for practical chemistry being the most successful student at the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in 1891.  She qualified as a doctor in 1894.  After working in a children’s hospital in Edinburgh she practiced as a GP in Greenock.

At the outbreak of the First World War she served as a doctor at various army barracks attending to the soldiers and their families. She then volunteered to the War Office as a doctor and served abroad in Malta and Salonica. 

Her health was severely undermined and she died on the 25th October 1919 of pneumonia.  She is buried in Greenock Cemetery.