Anna Petronella van Heerden
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Anna Petronella van Heerden | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 April 1887 |
| Died | 10 January 1975 (aged 87) Cape Town, South Africa |
| Alma mater | University of Amsterdam |
| Known for | first Afrikaner woman to qualify as a medical doctor |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Gynecology |
| Institutions | Private practice South African medical corps (WWII) |
| Thesis | Die sogenamde adenioma van die ovarium (1923) |
Anna Petronella van Heerden (1887–1975), was the first Afrikaner woman to qualify as a medical doctor.[1] Her thesis, for which she obtained a doctorate in 1923, was the first medical thesis written in Afrikaans.[2] She practiced as a gynecologist, retiring in 1942.[2] She also served in the South African medical corps during World War II.[3]
Van Heerden was born on 26 April 1887 in Bethlehem, Orange Free State.[2][3] Her parents were Francois Willem van Heerden and Josephine Ryneva Beck Horak. She was the middle child with an older brother Alexander Charles and a younger brother Frankie.[4]
She was educated at the Huguenot Seminary in Wellington and Victoria College in Stellenbosch. She studied at the University of Amsterdam from 1908 to 1915 where she completed her medical degree.[3][5] Van Heerden served as an intern at the Volkshuishospitaal in Bloemfontein in 1916 and had her own practice in Harrismith from 1917. She specialised in gynaecology in London from 1921 before returning to Amsterdam to complete her PhD.[5] After obtaining her doctorate in 1923 with a thesis entitled, Die sogenamde adenioma van die ovarium (in English: The so-called adenoma of the ovary), she moved to Cape Town where she practiced as a gynaecologist. Van Heerden served in the South African medical corps during World War II and in 1942 she retired from her practice.[2]
