Lillian Mary Pickford (14 August 1902 – 14 August 2002) was a pioneering British neuroendocrinologist. She was the first woman to be elected to the Pharmacological Society and the first woman appointed to a medical professorship at the University of Edinburgh.
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Life and work
Pickford was born in Jubbulpore, India on 14 August 1902 the daughter of Herbert Arthur Pickford, a tea and indigo planter, and his wife, Lillian Alice Minnie Wintle.
She was sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Surrey, England at the age of five. A family friend, Sir Cooper Perry encouraged her to become a doctor but discouraged her from becoming a researcher, saying, 'Don't think of it. Women are no use at that kind of thing'.
She was educated at Wycombe Abbey school.
In 1925 she graduated from Bedford College, London, having read physiology, zoology, and chemistry. After graduation the scarcity of work for women scientists meant she had difficulty finding any, but she found part-time work teaching before being accepted as a research assistant at University College London. A legacy from her godmother of £120 a year meant she could study clinical medicine part-time at University College Hospital and she was admitted MRCS and LRCP in 1933. In 1935 she became House Physician at Stafford General Hospital.