Edith Anne Stoney

Lore & Background

Edith Stoney was born at 40 Wellington Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin, to George Johnstone Stoney, who coined the term 'electron', and his wife Margaret Sophia Stoney. She demonstrated considerable mathematical talent and gained a scholarship at Newnham College, Cambridge, achieving a First in the Part I Tripos in 1893, though women were then excluded from Cambridge degrees. She later received a BA and MA from Trinity College Dublin after it admitted women in 1904. After brief work on gas turbine calculations and searchlight design, she took a mathematics teaching post at Cheltenham Ladies' College.

In 1899, she became a physics lecturer at the London School of Medicine for Women, where she set up a physics laboratory and designed the course. Her sister Florence Stoney was a radiologist at the Royal Free Hospital, and together they opened a new x-ray service in 1902. Edith also served as treasurer of the British Federation of University Women from 1909 to 1915 and proposed members for a subcommittee to secure women's right to become barristers, solicitors, or parliamentary agents.

During World War I, after being refused by the British Red Cross because she was a woman, she joined the Scottish Women's Hospitals. She planned and operated x-ray facilities at a tented hospital in France, establishing stereoscopy to localize bullets and shrapnel and introducing x-rays for diagnosing gas gangrene. She served in France, Serbia, and Greece, retreating multiple times under enemy advance. Her war service earned her the Médaille des épidémies, Croix de Guerre, and Victory and British War Medals.

Reader's Guide

Edith Stoney's significance lies in her pioneering role as the first woman medical physicist, a field she helped establish through her work at the London School of Medicine for Women and her innovative x-ray applications during World War I. Her development of stereoscopic x-ray techniques and use of x-rays to diagnose gas gangrene directly improved surgical outcomes on the battlefield. As a woman in a male-dominated era, she overcame institutional barriers—such as being denied a Cambridge degree and being refused war service by the British Red Cross—to make lasting contributions. Her political engagement with the British Federation of University Women and the women's suffrage movement, alongside her later involvement with the Women's Engineering Society, underscores her broader impact on women's professional advancement. Her legacy includes the Johnstone and Florence Stoney Studentship, which supports research in biological, geological, and meteorological fields.

Did You Know?

• Edith Stoney was the first woman medical physicist.
• She established stereoscopy to localize bullets and shrapnel during World War I.
• She was awarded the Croix de Guerre from France.