In late 1870 she won a scholarship sponsored by Katharine Russell, Viscountess Amberley,[6] and her obituary states that she joined Sophia Jex-Blake and others at the University of Edinburgh to study medicine in 1871.

The subject of her medical thesis was "Congestive Phenomena following Epileptic and Hystero-epilectic Fits"[8] She met her husband, the physician William Allen Sturge[9] in Paris in 1877, and they returned to London together, marrying on 27 September at St Saviour's Church in Paddington.

[10] Thereafter they set up a practice together in Wimpole Street, and Bovell renewed her relationship with Queen's College, lecturing on physiology and hygiene, and running ambulance classes for women.

[12] In recognition of her contribution to the medical profession, in 1880 she was nominated by the French Government for the Officier d'Academie, an award rarely conferred on women.

Bovell established her own practice in Nice and as the first woman doctor she gained a good number of female patients.