Blue Plaque Unveiled for Pioneering Doctor Sophia Jex-Blake in Kemp Town

Recognition for medical pioneer

A blue plaque honouring doctor and campaigner Sophia Jex-Blake has been unveiled at 13 Sussex Square in Kemp Town, the home where she lived for over 25 years. The ceremony took place on 31 October at the property where Jex-Blake spent time both as a child and later in life.

Jex-Blake is remembered as a trailblazer who fundamentally changed medical education. She led the Edinburgh Seven, a group whose campaign at Edinburgh University opened up the medical profession to women despite facing significant prejudice and abuse, including the Surgeons' Hall riot. She became Scotland's first registered woman doctor and went on to co-found the London School of Medicine for Women, an institution that trained thousands of women doctors when other universities refused them entry. The school later became part of UCL Medical School.

Campaign by two teenagers

The plaque was initiated by twin sisters Sophia and Izzy Kilburn when they were 10 years old, working on a school project. While visiting St Wulfran's cemetery in Ovingdean, they discovered the graves of both Jex-Blake and Helena Normanton KC, another pioneering woman. They noticed neither had a blue plaque in Brighton and discovered that fewer than a quarter of the city's plaques recognised women. Their campaign led to the Helena Normanton plaque being unveiled in 2022, though Jex-Blake's took longer to achieve. Following an initial rejection, further research and an appeal, the Blue Plaque Committee unanimously approved the application. The twins said: "It feels fitting that a plaque honouring a woman who fought so hard against obstacles should have required a little determination of our own."

Ceremony details

Dame Parveen Kumar, a former president of the British Medical Association and Royal Society of Medicine, unveiled the plaque. The ceremony also heard contributions from Jo Spiller of Edinburgh University, who spoke about the prejudice Jex-Blake and the Edinburgh Seven experienced, and Georgina Brewis, a public historian at UCL, who discussed Jex-Blake's role in establishing the London School of Medicine for Women in 1874.

Attendees included Dame Jane Dacre, president of the Medical Women's Federation, Dame Cressida Dick, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner and Jex-Blake's great-great-grand-niece, and Councillor Theresa Fowler, the mayor of Brighton and Hove.

The unveiling coincided with the 150th anniversary year of the Medical Act 1876, legislation for which Jex-Blake had campaigned to enable women to practise medicine.

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