Susan Binnie Anderson

The material is composed of high school exam passes, photographs, pass certificates, class cards and tickets, degree scroll, and letters.

In the collection there is the Intermediate Certificate, dated 1913, issued by Airdrie Academy Higher Grade Public School, certifying that Binnie had gained the Intermediate Certificate in English, Mathematics, Science and Drawing, and that she continued at school for three further years passing in Lower Latin and Lower French.

The photographs (7) show: Binnie in her graduation dress (Yerbury, Edin.); formal photo-salon pose (A. Swan Watson, Edinburgh); formal head and shoulders salon-pose (A. Swan Watson, Edinburgh); Binnie in a group photo, Summer Session 1919 (A. Swan Watson, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh); group photo, Winter Session, 1919-1920 (A. Swan Watson, Edinburgh); group photo, no date, women in overalls (A. Swan Watson, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh); and, group photo, no date, womwn in nursing wear.

There are 10 receipts in favour of University of Edinburgh, signed by Binnie, between July 1916 and December 1921. The receipts are for examinations, and for registration with the General Council of the University. In addition there are 2 receipts in favour of St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester, 1920. There are also 10 Faculty of Medicine examination certificates 1916-1921, being: First Professional Examination in Zoology, July 1916, and Botany, October 1916, and Chemistry, March 1917, and Physics, July 1917; Second Professional Examination in Physiology, Anatomy, March 1918, and Practical Pharmacy, July 1918; Third Professional Examination in Pathology and Elementary Bacteriology, Materia Medica and Therapeutics, March 1919; Final Examination in Forensic Medicine, Public Health, July 1920; Final Examination in Midwifery, Medicine, Clinical Medicine, and Clinical Gynecology, July 1921; and a certificate stating that Susan Anderson Binnie has passed the Final Professional Examination for the Degree of M.B. and Ch.B.

Dated 19 December 1922, there is a Medical Registration Certificate issued by the Scottish Branch of the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of the UK, and in favour of Binnie, Susan Anderson. Issued by the same body in April 1916, there is a Medical Students' Registration certificate, and a 'Certificate after Instruction' on Vaccination certifying Binnie's competency as a public vaccinator. The collection includes Binnie's medical degree, on parchment, and in Latin, and 3 Second Class Honours Certificates issued by Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in June 1916, for her performance in classes on Practical Zoology, Elementary Botany, and Practical Botany. There are 4 certificates from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh - one dated May 1921 noting attendance on tickets for twenty-eight months, another two noting that Binnie acted as a clinical clerk in 1918-1919 and in 1921, and another that she acted as a dresser in 1917. Finally, there are 2 certificates issued by St. Mary's Hospitals, Manchester - one from the Gynaecological Department and one from the Obstetrical Department, November 1920.

There are 39 certificates issued by both the Royal Infirmary and the University of Edinburgh indicating the classes attended by Binnie between 1916 and 1921. The subjects range from Lower Extremity dissection, Zoology and Practical Zoology, Practical Histology, Practical Anatomy, Physics, Chemistry, and Practical Anaesthetics, to Diseases of Children, Midwifery and Gynaecology, and Mental Diseases. There are an additional 3 certificates indicating that she acted as a Clinical Clerk in the Clinical Surgery wards between 1918 and 1920. In addition there are 17 examples of the Second Class Certificate of Merit issued by the University (Faculty of Medicine) indicating that SUSAN Binnie had 'acquitted himself' as a member of class between 1916 and 1921, a certificate from Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women relevant to classes taken in 1916, a certificate of attendance at classes taken in 1919 at the Western Dispensary, Riego Street, Edinburgh, and an unused form for change of address issued by the Scottish Branch of the General Medical Council.

The collection also contains: 1 enrolment/non-matriculant ticket as extra-academical student, 1915-1916; various tickets both University and non-University; 5 enrolment/matriculation tickets over-printed with Civis Universitatis Academicae Edinburgensis Kalendis Octobribus, and relevant to 1917, 1919, 1920, 1921, and 1922; and, 9 manuscript and typescript letters, being mainly letters of recommendation from a Lecturer on Diseases of Children, a Surgeon and Senior Lecturer, a Professor of Surgery, a Professor of Bacteriology, and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and dated between 3 May 1922 and 7 June 1922.

Susan Anderson Binnie was born on 19 June 1898, at Lynmill, Avonbridge, Stirlingshire. She was the sister of John Binnie, born in 1894. She was educated at Airdrie Academy, and then from 1915 she studied medicine at Edinburgh University where she was among the first women allowed to study with male medical students. Binnie graduated with the degrees of MB and ChB in the early 1920s. Her brother had also graduated as a doctor, and during the First World War he served on submarines.

In the post-War years, John Binnie set up a medical practice in Midcalder and Susan Binnie worked for him in the practice for a short while. She then worked as a pathologist at Bangour Hospital, West Lothian.

On 4 July 1925, at Lynmill, Avonbridge, Binnie married Donald Moodie, an artist on the staff of Edinburgh College of Art. As a young married woman with two small children - Kathleen and Margaret - she found it difficult to keep her medical career going, but she was able to undertake a few locums in the Highlands and Islands, on Papa Westray in Orkney, and on Coll, and in Easter Ross. She twice tried to return to medicine full-time but this just wasn't to be.

Susan Anderson Binnie (Mrs Susan A. Moodie) died on 27 March 1975, in Edinburgh.

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