Ethel Mary Nucella Williams (8 July 1863 – 29 January 1948) was born in Cromer, and attended Norwich High School for Girls and Newnham College, Cambridge.
Ethel attended the London School of Medicine for Women and graduated in 1891. She had to gain her hospital experience abroad in Paris and Vienna, because at that time women were not permitted to train in British hospitals, and qualified in 1895.
Williams was the first female doctor in Newcastle upon Tyne, and in 1906, she became the first woman to found a general medical practice in the city, where she worked alongside Dr Ethel Bentham.
In 1917, she co-founded the Northern Women's Hospital, which is now the Nuffield Health Clinic on Osborne Road. She retired in 1924 and left her practice to another female doctor, Dr Mona MacNaughton. Ethel was also one of the initial members of the Medical Women's Federation.
