Elizabeth Smith attended Queen's University, Kingston and received her degree in medicine at the Royal Medical College in 1884 (one of the first 3 women M.D.'s in Canada). She also received a diploma from the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. For two years Dr. Elizabeth Smith practiced in Hamilton. She married Adam Shortt in Dec 1886. They moved to Kingston where Elizabeth lectured at Queen's on Medical Jurisprudence and Sanitary Science. She worked for the first Y.W.C.A. in Canada and served as its president, and was a sponsor of the Kingston Musical Club and presided over it for seven years. In September 1908 she and her husband moved to Ottawa where she became very active in the local, provincial, and National Council of Women affairs. In connection with these organizations she wrote pamphlets on social aspects of tuberculosis, housing, and many other subjects of concern. In 1911 she was the first Convener of the Public Health and Mental Hygiene Committee of the National Council of Women. She was instrumental in organizing a hostel for women immigrants in Ottawa. She was largely responsible in convening a committee to petition the Provincial Government to establish Mother's Allowances in Ontario, and when this was accomplished in 1920, she was appointed vice-chairman of the Provincial Board of Mother's Allowances and acted in that capacity for seven years. She died in Ottawa Jan. 14, 1949.
Elizabeth Smith Shortt. Special Collections, University of Waterloo Library.(excerpts)


Elizabeth Shortt, died in hospital on Friday, January 14, 1949. Elizabeth Smith, M.D., widow of Dr. Adam Shortt, C.M.G., and mother of Miss Lorraine Shortt, of 404 Laurier Ave. E.; Mrs. Roger Clarke, of Vineland, and Dr. George Shortt, of Detroit, Michigan.
The Ottawa Journal, 14 Jan 1949

She was actively connected with Ottawa women's organizations over a long period of years. She was the oldest graduate of the Women's Medical College, Queen's University.
The Ottawa Journal, 17 Jan 1949