Ethel Mary Nucella Williams (8 July 1863 – 29 January 1948)[1][2] was the first female doctor in Newcastle upon Tyne, a suffragist and pacifist.

[5] She then moved to the north-east of England, deciding to settle in Newscastle upon Tyne as it had the fewest doctors per capita of cities in the United Kingdom at the time.

[6] In 1906, she also became the first woman to found a general medical practice in the city, setting up in Ellison Place where she worked alongside fellow doctor Ethel Bentham.

[9] During the Second World War she returned to Newcastle, volunteering at air raid shelters to provide medical aid to civilian casualties.

[9] Williams was one of the over 3,000 women who took part in the 'Mud March' of 1907 in London, organised by the National Union of Woman's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

[8] Williams was also a member of the Literary and Philosophical Society, became a tutor for the Workers’ Educational Association,[6] and served as a Justice of the Peace.

[3] Williams was the lifelong companion of Frances Hardcastle, an English mathematician and one of the founding members of the American Mathematical Society.