Hilda Lloyd

Dame Hilda Nora Lloyd, born Hilda Shufflebotham in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, on 11 August 1891, was a British physician and surgeon who became a leading figure in obstetrics and gynaecology. She studied at the University of Birmingham, taking her medical degree in 1916, trained in obstetrics and gynaecology there after house posts in London, and passed the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1920. Her work concerned the health of poor urban women, including sexually transmitted disease and the consequences of illegal abortion, and she pioneered the obstetric flying squads that took help to mothers and babies at risk. She became Birmingham's first woman professor in 1944 and chair of obstetrics and gynaecology in 1946. In 1949 she was the first woman elected president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and in 1950 the first woman on the General Medical Council. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1951 and died in Clent, Worcestershire, on 18 July 1982.