Ethel Elizabeth Osborne (née Goodson 30 January 18823 December 1968) was a British-born Australian doctor who was an expert in the field of hygiene and public health. She was also a founder of both the Lyceum Club, and the

Catalysts Catalysis () is the increase in reaction rate, rate of a chemical reaction due to an added substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst ...

Biography

Osborne was born in

Armley Armley is a district in the west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It starts less than from Leeds city centre. Like much of Leeds, Armley grew in the Industrial Revolution and had several mills, one of which now houses the Leeds Industrial ...

, a district of

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

in England and studied at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

, graduating in 1901. On the 10 December 1903 she married William Alexander Osborne and then travelled to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. In 1910 Osborne founded the Catalysts, a women's group in Victoria. She also founded a Lyceum Club in Melbourne, and was elected vice-president during its first meeting on 21 March 1912. Osborne served for two years with the British

Ministry of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis o ...

during World War II as a night welfare worker, where she performed research for the Health of Munition Workers' Committee and the Industrial Fatigue Research Board, publishing two reports, "Industrial Hygiene as Applied to Munition Workers" (1921) and was the coauthor of "Study of Accident Causation" (1922). Osborne also conducted inspections of the

Women's Land Army The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created in 1917 by the Board of Agriculture during the First World War to bring women into work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the ...

training centres, taking her then three children with her. In 1919 Osborne returned to Melbourne. Osborne had four children, Audrey Josephine in 1905, Gerard in 1908, Yrsa in 1913, and Charis in 1920. Osborne retired in 1938. In 2008 she was inducted into the

Victorian Honour Roll of Women The Victorian Honour Roll of Women was established in 2001 to recognise the achievements of women from the Australian state of Victoria. It was launched by The Hon. Joan Kirner AC as a joint initiative of the Centenary of Federation Victoria Comm ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Ethel 1882 births 1968 deaths Medical doctors from Leeds 20th-century English medical doctors 20th-century British women medical doctors British women activists British women's rights activists English expatriates in Australia Alumni of the University of Leeds