Emily Hancock Siedeberg-McKinnon, Commander of the Order of the British Empire Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery Bachelor of Science was a New Zealand medical practitioner and hospital superintendent.
Background
Siedeberg was born in 1873 in Clyde, Otago, New Zealand. When Emily was three the family settled in Dunedin, her father becoming a successful building contractor. From an early age she accepted her father"s dictum that she should train as a doctor.
Education
Encouraged by her father, she studied medicine and graduated from the University of Otago Medical School in 1896.
Career
She was also the country"s first female medical graduate. She was the third child of Irish Quaker Anna Thompson and Franz David Siedeberg, a German Jewish architect who had emigrated to New Zealand in 1861 and taken up mining. Emily was educated at the Normal School and at Otago Girls" High School, where she held a board scholarship.
She did her post-graduate studies at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, and in Berlin.
After postgraduate training and work experience overseas, she eventually registered as a medical practitioner and set up a private practice in Dunedin. She was appointed Medical Superintendent at Saint Helen"s Hospital, Dunedin, and served from 1905–1938.
Doctor Siedeberg was active in community and welfare work. Otago University Women"s Association
New Zealand Federation of University Women
The Townswomen"s Guild
Delegate to the first Pan-Pacific Women"s Conference
National Council of Women of New Zealand (Dunedin branch) (1918)
Otago Pioneer Women"s Memorial Association
The street Emily Siedeberg Place in Dunedin was named in her honour in 1993, as part of Suffrage Centennial Year.
Siedeberg Drive in Flat Bush, Auckland, was also named in her honour.