Britain's first medical marriage: Frances Morgan (1843-1927), George Hoggan (1837-1891) and the mysterious "Elsie".

Britain's first medical marriage was between George Hoggan and Frances Morgan, in 1874. George was a naval engineer before he studied medicine; he showed great promise in research before his death, aged 54, after a long illness. Frances was arguably the most gifted of the early medical women. She was the first British woman to obtain an MD in Europe and the first to do high-quality medical research. Her clinical practice was curtailed by George's illness and death but she continued to campaign on social issues--including women's education, health education and civil rights. Her life was all the more remarkable because new evidence suggests that, at the age of 17, before she started her medical studies, she gave birth to an illegitimate child. Had this been known it would, in Victorian times, have dashed her hopes of a career in medicine.