Sgurr wrote:Is it the Surgeon's Hall Riot, after which women could study medicine?
It is indeed. In 1869 Seven women had been admitted to Edinburgh University (the first women in Britain to be admitted to university) to study medicine. They became known as the Edinburgh Seven. There was some opposition to their presence which was stirred up by Sir Robert Christison so much so that when one of the 7 came top in the first examinations that they sat, it was decided not to award her the Hope Scholarship ( awarded to the top 4 students) and it was awarded to the top 4 males in that year. The women suffered abuse from fellow male students and Christison's influnece was such that university staff who had supported them, withdrew their support. The press, however, were supportive. Hostility to them grew until the time of the anatomy exam in November 1970 when they found their way to the exam at Surgeon's Hall barred by a crowd of several hundred who started pelting them with mud. They only gained entrance to the exam with the help of sympathetic male student. The riot back-fired in that it galvanised support for the women and highlighted the case for women being able to study and practise medicine although it was some years before Scottish Universities did start to admit female students and another 100 or so years before women were admitted in equal numbers to men to study medicine, now they exceed men. I maybe should have used the women, as it was their perserverance before and after the riot that advanced the case for women doctors but seven sets of initials were a bit daunting.