[1][2][3] Her father was Harrogate general practitioner Dr Richard Sobey Veale,[nb 1] who, like his daughter, had to travel hundreds of miles for his qualifications, having been born in Maker, Cornwall, and trained at Edinburgh.

[6][9][10] Veale was born on 30 August 1867,[4] in Greenside House which still stands opposite the village school in Hampsthwaite.

[12] At his Harrogate funeral his hearse was followed by "an exceedingly large concourse of townspeople", and his hearse was headed by the police, and followed by members of the town council, the legal profession and the medical profession, 100 members of the Conservative Club, the Primrose League, the borough justices, the mayor of Harrogate, and representatives of the Freemasons.

En route to Harrogate Cemetery, shops were closed, blinds were drawn, and flags lowered to half mast.

[14] In 1891 the census finds Veale living in Rosebury (house), Bilton, with her widowed mother, three siblings and two servants.

[10] However it was difficult for women to qualify as doctors during Veale's youth,[1][19] and she was "denied entry" to the Leeds School of Medicine.

[21]The medical school board for the institution noted that it would be "impossible" for Veale to attend the classes required for qualification.

[21] Harrogate historian Paul Jennings has said, "In the late 19th century there was still a stigma, and a considerable amount of opposition to women entering medicine, which is made evident by [Veale's] rejection from Leeds Medical School".

[2][22][26]: 986  Graham Chalmers of the Harrogate Advertiser wrote that Veale "was a formidable character" by all reports, who "fought against strong opposition to women in the medical profession, and by the time of the Edwardian era had succeeded".

[1][9] By 1911, Veale was living and working at 23 York Place, Harrogate, which was listed as an eleven-room house, with three servants.

[9] At the time, the institution had a rule which prevented pregnant women from being admitted,[10] and Veale spent a quarter of a century fighting for them to create a maternity department, which was finally instigated in 1937, the year after she retired.

[1][3] In 1916 Veale was appointed Physician under the Maternity and Infant Welfare Scheme, for which she was paid a salary of £100 (equivalent to £8,564 in 2023) per annum.

That did not materialise at the hospital, but at the former St George's Convalescent Home, 2 Dragon Parade, Harrogate, where an NHS clinic for children still exists.

[3] Veale was "a founder member and president of the Harrogate Women's Luncheon Club, and was a Division Commissioner of the Girl Guides for 23 years ... She formed and trained the first Red Cross detachment in the district".

[1][32] In 1946, following her efforts during the Second World War, Veale was presented with a silver cigarette case "as a token of admiration and affection" by the Harrogate women's organisations.

[33] "Veale's achievements were ... acknowledged by North Yorkshire County Council's Sons and Daughters Campaign which saw the clinician make the top ten in their public vote".

[2][4][32] The British Medical Journal described her as "a very remarkable woman who during the past half-century had a considerable influence on life in Harrogate and beyond that in her native Yorkshire".

[3] The Times echoed that sentiment, saying: "For a woman who never held any important administrative post as president of this or chairman of that body, her impact on her profession and on social medicine was remarkable".

[4] Dr Paul Jennings of Harrogate Civic Society said:[4] [Veale] deserves recognition as an important figure in the history of both medicine and feminism, and a key figure in medical provision, especially for women and infants, in her native county [of the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire], and more particularly Harrogate.