Elizabeth Casson

Elizabeth Casson was a doctor who worked with women who had mental illnesses.  In 1926 she became the first woman to gain a Doctorate at Bristol University.  “Elsie’, as she was known to her family, found that by taking groups of these women to a house on the Promenade at Bristol and encouraging them to carry out every day tasks such as gardening, cooking, sewing etc they made faster recovery.  She is therefore considered to be the founder of Occupational Therapy in the UK.  

When she died the house was sold. It had been called Dorset House.  The money from this sale was used to establish a Trust by her family which in turn purchased a building in Oxford which became the home of Dorset House School of Occupational Therapy, founded by Miss M MacDonald.  The students sat their first exams in 1938.  The school has now become part of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Oxford Brookes University offering degrees in Occupational Therapy.

http://www.elizabethcasson.org.uk/www.elizabethcasson.org.uk/Elizabeth_Casson.html