Euphan Maxwell (1887–1964) was an Irish

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

and the first woman ophthalmic surgeon in Ireland at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin.

Life and education

Euphan Montgomerie Maxwell was born in 1887, the daughter of Dr Patrick William Maxwell and Elizabeth Maxwell née Suckling. Her sister was the historian Constantia Maxwell, whom she lived with throughout her life at the family home at 19 Lower Baggot Street. Maxwell studied medicine and surgery at

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

, going on to be appointed a Fellow of the

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) is a not-for-profit medical professional and educational institution, which is also known as RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. It was established in 1784 as the national body ...

(RCSI). Both sisters were among the first women to attend the college as students. Maxwell was one of the founding members of the Elizabethan Society in 1904, a society for the female students of the college. Maxwell died in Kent, England in 1964 and is buried in Cranbrook, Tunbridge Wells.

Career

Maxwell became the Assistant Surgeon and Pathologist at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin in 1912 at age 25. She held this position until her retirement in 1957. She also served as honorary secretary of the British Medical Section of Ophthalmology. Maxwell attended some of those wounded during the Easter 1916 Rising in Dublin, working at a temporary hospital at 40 Merrion Square East. Her participation in these events was featured as part of the RCSI exhibition to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising in 2016. During World War I, Maxwell became one of the first seven women to serve in the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

in 1916. She went on to be deployed to

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

to the Ophthalmic Department St George's Hospital in August 1916. She resigned and left in 1917 to return to Dublin due to her father falling ill. She delivered the inaugural lecture established in his memory, the Montgomery Lectureship in Ophthalmology. Maxwell was one of the founding members of the Irish Ophthalmologic Society, elected the society's president from 1939 to 1941. She served as an examiner in Ophthalmology at the RCSI. Maxwell was a member of the short-lived Irish Centre Party, sitting on its Provisional General Committee.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, Euphan 1887 births 1964 deaths Medical doctors from Dublin (city) Irish ophthalmologists Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Irish women surgeons