Elizabeth Taylor Gilchrist

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.

Trinity Church War Memorial (now Lyle Kirk, Union Street)