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Dr. Elizabeth Essex
Name: Elizabeth Essex, M.D.
Physical Appearance: Elizabeth is on
Skills / Degrees: Medical Doctor with
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[Excerpt of a letter written by Elizabeth's
aunt, Emma Essex, to a
close friend of the family.]
Elizabeth, an only child, was born
to John Essex, Earl of Kent and his
wife, Victoria. Diana died during
childbirth, and the Earl raised
Elizabeth himself, with some help
from me. John was madly in love with
Diana, and after her death, he vowed
never to marry again. He raised
Elizabeth as he would have a son,
giving her everything she wanted and
supporting her in whatever she wished
to do. I suppose that's where
she inherited her eccentricity from.
She was (and is still) an audacious
child, for good or ill. A
voracious reader and quite bright,
her father got her into England's
best schools, culminating with Oxford.
She did extremely well at all
of them, and even garnered the respect
of some of her professors
(after they got used to her being...
well.... female).
Unfortunately, she didn't take to her
social lessons as well as to her
school studies. She was always rather
dense in that she never learned
the fine art of..... oh, understatement,
discussion. She always rather
stupidly said what she meant, whenever
she pleased. This, combined
with her audacity, led to her involvement
in this silly 'women's
liberation' nonsense. Of course, her
attitude won her a few admirers,
but no young men, and she has always
been rather peripheral in the
important social circles. (Although,
I must say, that she rather
impressed the Queen (when they were
much younger, of course) with some
of her tricks.) Most of the family
despairs of her ever finding a man
confident enough to handle her, and
she tends to agree.
Once at Oxford she became interested
in medicine. It was quite a job
for her father to get the program
administrators to let her in,
despite her natural talent in the
field (she doesn't know that, of
course; she thinks she got in of her
own accord). Her medical
professors hoped that she would enter
into research, where acceptance
of women (though small) would be greater
than out in the world of
practicing physicians. She didn't
listen, and instead of making her
way in the medical community, found
herself volunteering her services
to the poor and needy. In 1923, she
was hired by an archaeological
team, of all things, to be a doctor
out on expeditions. It appealed to
her sense of adventure, I suppose,
and that is what she's still doing.