Ethel Mary Vaughan Cowan

Ethel Mary Vaughan Eaves (née Cowan) (born 1868 – died 1943) was an Australian medical doctor who in 1898 was the first female doctor at the Royal Children's Hospital.^[1]

Cowan was described in a 20 November 1897 article in the Kyneton Observer as a "native of Ballarat"^[2]

After training and working as a nurse in Ballarat,^[3] Cowan graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1897.^[4] Prior to her appointment as resident at the Royal Children's Hospital in 1898, Cowan was obliged to work for one month without pay to prove her competency.^[5] Returning from a visit to England in 1902, she replaced Mary Fletcher in an honorary appointment at the Queen Victoria Hospital.^[6]

On 18 August 1904, Cowan married Stanley Eaves.^[7]

In 2024, after a 2023 proposal by the Melbourne City Council,^[8] a lane in Carlton, near to the Children's Hospital former location was named in honour of Cowan.^[1]