Dame Mary Scharlieb, DBE (1845-1930) was a pioneer British female physician in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Aged 19, she met William Scharlieb. For both it was love at first sight. The marriage took place in December 1865 and the couple sailed for India almost at once. She became one of the first four women students at the Madras Medical College. In three years she gained her Licentiate in Medicine. She set sail to return to England. She was accepted in 1879 for the first medical examination and she passed. She returned to India with her husband, Prof. Scharlieb. She began her private practice after returning again to England, in 1887. She felt that "artificial contraceptives are wrong, morally, medically, rationally.' She put in a powerful plea for the exercise of natural means of spacing the family.