Background
Margaret Balfour, daughter of Scottish accountant Robert Balfour (1818–1869) and Frances Grace Blaikie (1820–1891), was born in Edinburgh in 1866.
Margaret Balfour, daughter of Scottish accountant Robert Balfour (1818–1869) and Frances Grace Blaikie (1820–1891), was born in Edinburgh in 1866.
She studied at Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women under Sophia Jex-Blake and qualified as a doctor in 1891.
After graduating, she spent a year working with Doctor Annie McCall at the Clapham Maternity Hospital in South London before moving to India in 1892. Her first role in India was as manager of the Zenana Hospital in Ludhiana, where a medical school for women was established two years after her arrival. She then spent 18 years working as a Medical Superintendent, initially at the Dufferin Hospital at Nahan, where she worked until 1902, and then the Dufferin Hospital in Patiala, where she remained until 1914.
Her success in these role led to her appointment as assistant to the Inspector General of Civil Hospitals, Punjab, in 1914.
Two years later, she became the Chief Medical Officer of the newly formed Women's Medical Service, a post she held until 1924. At the same time, she served for eight years as joint secretary at Delhi and Simla to the Countess of Dufferin’s Fund, an organisation which was established to promote medical education for women in India.
In recognition of her work, in 1920 she was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal for Public Service in India. Margaret ended her formal work in India in 1924 and returned to the United Kingdom, where she was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She continued to work on behalf of Indian women, however, calling for the employment of more female doctors in India.
While being based in the United Kingdom, she make a number of return visits to India, in particular in connection with research into tropical anaemias she was undertaking with Doctor Lucy Wills.
In 1929 she published, with Ruth Young, The Work of Medical Women in India, a history of medical women in that country. Also that year, she became a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
In 1930, she published results of an investigation into maternity conditions among female mill-workers in Bombay and became one of the founding members of the Overseas Association of the Medical Women's Federation.