Ethel Bentham

British medical doctor and Labour Party M. P. (1861 1931)

Ethel Bentham, (5 January 1861 – 19 January 1931) was a progressive medical doctor, a politician and a suffragist in the United Kingdom. She was born in London, educated at Alexandra School and College in Dublin, the London School of Medicine for Women and the Rotunda Hospital.

Bentham was born in London, to William Bentham, an inspector and later general manager of the Standard Life Assurance Company, and Mary Ann Hammond. She was raised in Dublin, where her father was a Justice of the peace. Bentham made charitable trips with her mother to the city's slums, which inspired her to become a doctor.

Bentham worked in London hospitals for a short time, In 1900, she was a member of the executive committee of the Newcastle branch of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), and joined the Labour Party in 1902, the Fabian Society in 1907, She established a practice in North Kensington and was an expert on childhood enuresis (bedwetting) and an early believer in what would now be called socialised medicine. In 1911, Bentham was a driving force behind the establishment of a mother and baby clinic in North Kensington, Bentham served as the clinic's chief medical officer, and benefactor, underwriting its expenses. She died on 19 January 1931, at her flat in Beaufort Street, Chelsea, just after her 70th birthday, as a result of heart failure following influenza, and was cremated in Golders Green.

Bentham never married and had no children. She was raised an Anglican but became a member of the Quaker meeting at Friends House, London in 1920.