Special Achievements

• In 1967, Dr Isoblel Williams became the first woman President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP).

Additional Information

• Few records remain of Dr Williams' involvement with the College apart from her time as President from 1967 to 1968 which is unfortunate given her achievements as an early female psychiatrist. Other medical colleges in Australia and overseas did not have a female president until the late 1970's. 

CAREER MILESTONES

• 1932: Dr Constance Isabel Arundel (CIA) Williams graduated from Medicine at the University of Melbourne before joining the staff of the Launceston Public Hospital in Tasmania. 
• I938: Appointed to Lachlan Park Hospital (later Royal Derwent Hospital) in New Norfolk where she worked under the supervision of Dr Charles Brothers (an early President of Australasian Association of Psychiatrists).
• 1944: Qualified to join the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
• 1946: Became an inaugural member of the Australasian Association of Psychiatrists (AAP) where she was one of three women out of 67 members.
• 1949: Presented at the 1949 Congress in Hobart.
• 1952: Relocated from Lachlan Park to Millbrook Rise Psychopathic Hospital as Deputy Superintendent. Millbrook Rise was originally built using Tasmania’s share of the surplus Red Cross funds raised during the First World War, and was intended for the treatment of ‘shell-shocked’ veterans.  As this demand declined it specialised in the voluntary treatment of neurosis and depression both in a residential hospital and outpatient setting.
• 1958: Inaugural President of the Tasmanian Branch of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.
• 1963: Foundation Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. 
• 1967-68: President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.
• 1968: Dr Williams retired from the position of Head of Millbrook Rise to go into private practice.
• For many years Dr Williams was the only woman to reach a position of authority in either AAP or the College.

Link - Isobel Williams

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists

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Image - Dr Isobel Williams. 1967

Dr Isobel Williams, President of RANZCP 1967-68

Photo used with permission of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

References

• Isobel Williams, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, accessed 9/12/19