Dr. Lilian Violet Cooper was born in Chatham, England in 1868. Despite her parents’ encouragements to stay home and marry, in 1890 she earnt her degree from the London School of Medicine for Women - less than twenty years after the British medical registry first began accepting female doctors. She then emigrated to Australia and built her own medical practice, becoming Queensland’s first registered female practitioner. Travelling to patients by horse and cart, Dr. Cooper became renowned for her kindness and surgical skill. In 1896 she gained consultancy at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children – the first woman in Australia to achieve this feat. With the breakout of World War in 1914, Dr. Cooper offered her services to the Australian Army but was rebuffed and advised to stay home and knit. Determined to contribute, she joined the Scottish Women's Hospitals Group. Stationed at the Serbian front, she operated on 144 wounded soldiers under austere conditions, of whom only 14 died. For her work she received the Order of St Sava from the Serbian King. On return to Australia Dr. Cooper resumed her medical practice and consultancy work, and in 1927, she become the 128th fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons - the first woman admitted to the college. After 51 years in practice she retired in 1941 and passed away in 1947. Her work a pioneering female surgeon was celebrated in 2017 by the naming of the newly formed Queensland electorate of Cooper in her honour.