Violet Plummer

Violet Plummer (8 July 1873 – 17 June 1962) was a South Australian medical doctor, the first woman to graduate in medicine from the University of Adelaide, and in 1900 the first woman doctor to practise in Adelaide.

History

Violet Plummer was born in Camperdown, New South Wales a daughter of Major Isaac Arthur Plummer (1848–1905), who was to become Inspector of Schools in South Australia.

In 1881, the University of Adelaide was the first Australian university to admit women to academic courses, but accommodation was extremely hard to come by for many women who travelled from the country or interstate to study. In the 1930s, a group of like-minded women, including Dr Helen Mayo, Dr Violet Plummer, Dr Constance Finlayson, and Lady Pauline Grenfell Price, hoped to find a solution to the accommodation problem. Dr Violet Plummer approached Sidney Wilcox for help. Mr Wilcox had no wife or children and had built a house on Brougham Place, North Adelaide. He bequeathed his house so that a residential college for women could be formed. Originally established in 1939, St Ann's College did not officially open until 1947 because of the intervening war years. There were 16 residents in total in 1947, including women returned from war service, some of them having lost husbands or boyfriends in the war.