elsie hoelyw

New blue plaque honours Plymouth’s first female doctor

A new blue plaque honouring a pioneering female medic has been unveiled on the University of Plymouth’s campus.

Dr Rosa Bale was born in Barnstaple in 1864. She became Plymouth’s first female doctor, and possibly the first one west of Bristol, in either 1895 or 1896, having qualified at the London School of Medicine for Women in 1892.

Her plaque can be found on the north side...