Attracta Rewcastle arriving on her first day at the Admiralty, as the first female officer in the Royal Navy, 1940. Source: Wikimedia.
Attracta Genevieve Rewcastle, known as Eve to her family, studied medicine at the National University of Ireland, qualifying in 1921. She moved to Sheffield and took up a post as Schools’ Assistant Medical Officer and in 1926 married a barrister. They moved to London where she began work at Great Ormond Street Hospital and had three children. In 1939 she was commissioned to serve in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and thus became the first women doctor to be appointed by the Royal Navy. This caused some controversy when the Medical Women’s Federation objected to Eve being paid less than a man in a similar position. As a result she was promoted to the rank of Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander. She went on to secure the appointments of 20 female Surgeon Lieutenants to the RNVR and was awarded an OBE in 1946 in recognition of her wartime service. After the war she returned to Great Ormond Street Hospital and worked as a maternity and child welfare officer in South London. She was Chairman of the National Board of Catholic Women from 1945 to 1947 and became a Conservative councillor on Westminster City Council. She was buried in plot E 32 in the Anglican area. The stone is now lost.
You can read more about the history of healthcare in Sheffield and biographies of those who worked in a range of clinical and allied professions in the Sheffield General Cemetery publication Post Mortem.