David Rawlings, School of Education, University of Bristol
The School of Education at the University of Bristol has a long and proud history of women’s education. This June, our PGCE History student teachers explored the work and achievements of Dr Eliza Walker Dunbar (1845–1925): a pioneering physician, campaigner and founder of the Bristol Private Hospital for Women in Berkeley Square – now home to the School of Education.
The Bristol Private Hospital for Women was dedicated to the treatment of women by women and to the training of women in medicine at a time when their entry into the profession was far from assured. Dr Walker Dunbar held the post of Senior Surgeon at the hospital until her death in 1925. An sign of the opposition she faced at the time, a plaque citing her as Senior Surgeon on the door of the Bristol Private Hospital for Women was so routinely vandalised that Dr Walker Dunbar took to removing it each evening before reattaching it the following morning. A quiet and understated indication of her determination and dedication to women’s education and healthcare.
Dr Walker Dunbar’s achievements at 34 Berkeley Square opened doors for the generations that followed, marking the beginning of a long and celebrated history of women’s education and professional achievement on this site.
In recognition of her work and the impact she made on healthcare in the city, academics from the University of Bristol are working with the Bristol Civic Society to affix a blue plaque to the building’s façade and to restore her Senior Surgeon plaque to its position on the building’s front door.
Creative teaching, critical questions
As part of their Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP), PGCE History student teachers explore the teaching of local history and the historic environment. This year, the students were introduced to the details of Dr Dunbar’s life by Dr Evan Jones from the History Department at the University of Bristol. They discussed how her achievements might be positioned within the wider women’s movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and what her relatively unknown status reveals about history, memory and why we choose to remember figures from the past, before designing a range of educational resources intended to bring Dr Dunbar’s life and legacy to wider audiences.
Central to this work is a short podcast, which traces her journey from medical training in Zurich – one of the few places where women could study at the time – to her pioneering work in Bristol. The podcast can be accessed here: Dr Eliza Walker Dunbar: A pioneer.
Students also created a lesson plan and teaching resources, aimed at Key Stage 3 but adaptable for older or younger learners. These materials encourage students to grapple with questions of historical significance, memory and commemoration. Under the guiding question ‘How should Dr Dunbar be remembered?’, pupils are invited to consider why some lives become the focus of public memory while others do not, and to discuss what makes an individual historically significant. The resources can be downloaded here: [View the lesson plan and resources].
To support this work in the classroom, students assembled a source booklet featuring key documents and archival material linked to Dr Dunbar’s life. They also mapped out a walking tour of Bristol, highlighting key sites connected to her story – offering local schools and community groups the chance to encounter this history on the streets on which it unfolded. These resources can be accessed here: [Download the source booklet and walking tour].
Honouring hidden histories
This project is part of our broader commitment at the School of Education to uncovering hidden histories and bringing them into the public sphere. In shining a light on Dr Eliza Walker Dunbar’s contributions, our PGCE History student teachers have shown how history education can help challenge silences, question whose stories are told, and make the past feel powerfully present.
For more information, and to explore the full range of resources produced by our students, please follow the links below:
- Podcast: Dr Eliza Walker Dunbar: A pioneer.
- Resources: [View the lesson plan and resources].
- Resources: [Download the source booklet and walking tour].
PGCE programmes at the University of Bristol
To discover more about our PGCE programmes, and find out more about how to train in secondary education at the University of Bristol, visit our website: Secondary Teacher Education PGCE | University of Bristol