Dr Emily Winifred Dickson was the first female Fellow of RCSI. Born in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, she began her studies at RCSI in 1887, two years after the College first admitted female students. Dickson enjoyed a distinguished academic career, winning a number of student medals and receiving her licence in 1891. She earned her MB (Bachelor of Medicine, first class honours, with an exhibition prize) in 1893, the year she was also elected a Fellow of the College, a first for a woman in any college of surgeons in Ireland or Britain. She studied on a scholarship in Vienna and Berlin, and in 1894 on the opening of the Extern Department for Diseases of Women at the Richmond Hospital, Dublin, was appointed as its first gynaecologist. She also served as supernumerary assistant at the Coombe. In 1896 Dickson was appointed examiner at the RCSI, another first for women in Ireland or Britain. In later life, she worked in Britain as a medical health officer and general practitioner.