Sheena Evans, How a Great Medical Pioneer, Once Lost from the Collective Public Memory, was Rediscovered

Speaker: Sheena Evans
Date and Time: Wednesday, 1st October, 4 pm,
Location: Wheeler, Chester
Room: CRV 012

Independent Scholar and Biographer, Forgotten But Not Lost. How a Great Medical Pioneer, Once Lost from the Collective Public Memory, was Rediscovered, 

Janet Vaughan lived from 1899 to 1993. One of the few women to qualify as a doctor in 1925, within 10 years she published a classic book on the anaemias and was teaching in the British Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith. She was seventh female fellow of the Royal College of Physicians from 1939, and first female Councillor from 1943.

Vaughan campaigned to improve the nutrition of the poor, and from 1936 worked for Spanish Medical Aid to relieve suffering during the Spanish Civil War. During World War Two she helped run the blood transfusion service and plan the reform of medical education, and served on the 1944 Royal Commission on Equal Pay.
Principal of Somerville College Oxford from 1945, she became a Dame in 1957. Research continued: she was soon a world authority on the effects of plutonium on bone, then Fellow of the Royal Society. But by 1993 she had slipped from public memory.

Her biographer will explore the reasons for this, and how it proved possible to research and write the story of her action-packed life.

All are welcome to attend these in-person talks. Booking is encouraged for refreshment and seating purposes and in case there are any last-minute changes (contact details below). Please check the event listings for updates to the programme: www.chester.ac.uk/events (scroll down to see the individual events). Access to the event venue is via a flight of steps. For those with limited mobility, there is an accessible route and please pre-book to arrange this access. fhsc.histsoc@chester.ac.uk or 01244 512963.