Monica Lewin was born in Jamaica in 1926 and travelled to London on a Jamaican government scholarship to study medicine at the Royal Free Hospital, becoming the first Jamaican woman to pass the Fellowship exam of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1962.
Lewin returned to Jamaica to serve as a senior registrar and was appointed surgeon to the Children's and Kingston Public Hospitals, treating gunshot and machete wounds during the civil unrest of 1960s Kingston while working close to danger to save lives.
After marrying consultant urologist David Atkinson, Lewin returned to Britain, where she worked as a clinical assistant in the accident and emergency departments of the Royal Northern and Whittington Hospitals until her retirement in 1988.
Lewin died in 1998, remembered as a pioneering figure among Britain's earliest Black women surgeons, at a time when very few Black or minority ethnic surgeons were practising in the UK.
She was one of very few Black or minority ethnic surgeons practising in Britain at the time, paving a path for those who followed.
Monica Lewin's fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1962 marked a landmark for Black women in British and Jamaican medicine, and her willingness to treat the wounded during Kingston's civil unrest reflected a career defined by care under pressure.
- 1926Born in Jamaica.
- 1950sStudies medicine at the Royal Free Hospital, London, on a Jamaican government scholarship.
- 1962Becomes the first Jamaican woman to pass the FRCS exam.
- 1960sServes as surgeon to the Children’s and Kingston Public Hospitals during civil unrest.
- 1988Retires from clinical practice in London.
- 1998Dies.
- ★ First Jamaican woman to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
- ★ Surgeon to the Children's and Kingston Public Hospitals during 1960s civil unrest
- ★ Worked in London's accident and emergency departments for over two decades
- ★ One of Britain's earliest Black women surgeons