Mary Burton persuaded the Watt Institution and School of Arts to open its doors to women students in 1869 and went on to become the first woman on the School’s Board of Directors and a life Governor of Heriot-Watt College. One of the first women to serve on Edinburgh Parochial and School Boards, Mary was a lifelong campaigner for women’s suffrage and an advocate for educational opportunities for all.[50] The Edinburgh Seven were the first group of matriculated undergraduate female students at any British university. They began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869 and although they were unsuccessful in their struggle to graduate and qualify as doctors, the campaign they fought gained national attention and won them many supporters including Charles Darwin.