Jessie Catherine Gray

Jessie Catherine Gray was Canada's "first lady of surgery," and one of the four leading cancer surgeons in North America. Gray earned a formidable succession of firsts: first woman gold medalist in medicine at the University of Toronto (1934); first woman to obtain the master of surgery degree (1939); first woman resident surgeon at the Toronto General Hospital; first woman fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada, 1941); first woman member of the Central Surgical Society of North America; first woman elected to the Science Council of Canada (1966). She was appointed associate surgeon in chief at Women's College Hospital, Toronto, in 1941, and held the post of surgeon in chief from 1945 to her retirement in 1965.