During World War II, women had to take over the men’s jobs, and Bella found her vocation as a welder in Caledon Shipyard, working amongst the cranes. She was born Bella Mitchell, the youngest of three children. Her family lived… read more
One of Dundee’s first female councillors, she worked long and conscientiously on behalf of the poor and for better education. As a member of the suffrage movement, she spoke, wrote and campaigned with gusto. She also supported and encouraged her… read more
Two of only 101 women doctors in Britain at the time, they set up first at 93 Nethergate and then at 4 Tay Square, where the plaque is situated on a newer building on the same spot – still a… read more
It’s not only the architects and builders who change the face of a city – someone has to put up the money to pay for it! Daughter of a mega-rich mill owner, Edward Caird of Loch Long, Dumbartonshire, Emma Caird… read more
Ethel has a double claim to fame – as the finest Dundee woman artist of her time and as, if not the leader, then certainly the ‘most turbulent’ of Dundee’s suffragettes! Younger sister of Alice [footstep six], they were daughters of… read more
First woman MP for Dundee, first Conservative woman cabinet minister, first woman Privy Councillor … and more besides. Florence Horsbrugh came into politics almost by accident, when she stood in for an absent speaker. Born into an Edinburgh family, she… read more
Born in 1881, the daughter of the minister of Lochee Parish Church, Jean is thought to be Scotland’s first police woman. Some people had wanted female police to protect women and some had wanted them to control women. Eventually, the… read more
An elementary school teacher with a sharp brain and a sharp tongue, Miss Clunas was one of Dundee’s foremost suffragettes. Although born in Glasgow, she spent her life in Dundee where she heckled, joined meetings and deputations, and wrote to… read more
Margaret Fairlie was born in Arbroath and graduated in medicine at St Andrews at a time when it was ‘positively indecent to lecture to a woman in physiology and anatomy’, according to an unnamed professor of the time! She then… read more
Margaret was a redoubtable mill-worker and trade unionist from the age of 15. At the same time as bringing up four children, she became the first woman General Secretary of a British trade union – the Dundee & District Union… read more
“I have never had any personal ambitions. I have but one: to make my contribution to destroy the capitalist system.” So said Mary Brooksbank, mill-worker and life-long socialist and Communist, several times imprisoned for her campaigning activities. Born in an… read more
Her father, a prominent Dundee solicitor, died when she was young. Mary Lily Walker cared for her mother until her death in 1883, when she returned to her studies, becoming one of University College’s first woman entrants, studying Latin, Maths,… read more
Originally from Aberdeen and born into a poor family, this young girl arrived in Dundee aged eleven. As a mill-worker in Baxter’s, Mary attended the Wishart Church, along with her mother and siblings. Mary’s plaque is below the old Wishart… read more
Mrs Strong was only connected to Dundee for four or five years, but in that time, she transformed nursing conditions and training at Dundee Royal Infirmary [DRI]. Having trained under Florence Nightingale at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, Mrs Strong… read more
A god-daughter of Queen Victoria and born at Megginch Castle, near Perth, Victoria amazed her family by making her career as a marine engineer, training at what is now the University of Abertay Dundee – her plaque is placed at… read more
At 20, Williamina went to the USA with her new husband but they soon separated. Williamina, with her infant son Edward Pickering Fleming, got a job as housekeeper to Edward Pickering, Director of Harvard College Observatory. He saw her potential… read more
Around Dundee there is a trail of twenty-five plaques to commemorate remarkable Dundee women. Their stories are told in further detail in the Dundee Women's Trail book. Click here to purchase a limited copy.
Charity No. SC036149
Buy the book