In Dragon's Den, who became the first female Dragon to appear on the UK panel?

Rachel Elnaugh was the first female Dragon to appear on the UK Dragon's Den panel.

Elnaugh joined the original panel when the British series launched in 2005. She was an entrepreneur associated with the gift business Red Letter Days, which she co-founded with her then-husband, Simon Elnaugh. The company sold experience gifts such as driving and leisure packages.

Her presence made her one of the programme's founding investors and established a female perspective on the original BBC panel. She left the regular cast after the first series and was succeeded by Deborah Meaden in series two.

This fact is often mixed up with Meaden's later, much longer tenure. Meaden became the programme's most enduring female investor, but she was not the first woman to serve as a Dragon. Rachel Elnaugh holds that distinction for the British version.