Elizabeth Catherine Bagshaw (1881 - 1982)

Born 19 Oct 1881 in Mariposa, Victoria, Ontario, Canada

Ancestors

Died 5 Jan 1982 at age 100 in Hamilton, Hamilton-Wentworth, Ontario, Canada

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Biography

Elizabeth Bagshaw is Notable.

Elizabeth Bagshaw was a centenarian, living to age 100.

Elizabeth Bagshaw is/was a significant Ontarian .

Elizabeth Bagshaw, one of Canada's first female physicians, was a lifelong crusader for women's reproductive health.

Born about 1881, she was the daughter of John Bagshaw and Eliza Beatty.^[1] After attending Lindsay Collegiate in Lindsay, Ontario, Elizabeth graduated from the Ontario Medical College for Women, University of Toronto, in 1905. The following year she moved to Hamilton, Ontario, where she began her medical practice. She took a particular interest in obstetrics and women's health.

From 1932 to 1966 she was the director of Canada’s first birth control clinic. Contraception was only removed from the Criminal Code in Canada in 1969.

Dr. Bagshaw retired at the age of 95 in 1976, making her the oldest practicing physician at the time.

She died in 1982 at the age of 100. She never married or had any children, although at the age of 45 it is said she adopted her second cousin’s son after her cousin's death.

Legacy and Honours

• Member Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
• Hamilton's Citizen of the Year, 1970
• Order of Canada, 1973
• Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, 1979
• Elizabeth Bagshaw Elementary School in Hamilton is named in her honour
• Elizabeth Bagshaw Women's Clinic in Vancouver, B.C. is also named in her honour

Sources

1. ↑ "Canada Births and Baptisms, 1661-1959," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FLV9-VTL : 10 February 2018), Elizabeth Catherine Bagshaw, 19 Oct 1881; citing Mariposa, Victoria, Ontario, 19 Oct 1881, reference 32398; FHL microfilm 1,845,577.

See also:

• “This Canadian birth control trailblazer wasn't afraid to play the 'devil'” by Chris Chang-Yen Phillips. Published by the CBC on March 27, 2017.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #149945037
• Wikipedia: Elizabeth Bagshaw
• Wikidata: Item Q5362364, en:Wikipedia