Dr Helen Elizabeth Mair

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FFCM FRCPsych FRCP (18 April 1924 - 14 March 2016) was an English physician and medical author. She was Director of Public Health at Medway Health Authority.

Biography

Mair was born in Rotherham, England on 18 April 1924 to James Alexander Mair, a director of education, and his wife Helen Sumner Mair, a headmistress and educational adviser to the Girl Guides. She attended

Dr Williams' School Dr Williams' School was a school founded in Dolgellau in 1875. It opened its doors in 1878 and continued until it was closed in 1975. Samuel Holland was actively involved in setting the school up and became its first Chairman of the Board of Gov ...

Dolgellau Dolgellau () is a town and community in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, lying on the River Wnion, a tributary of the River Mawddach. It was the traditional county town of the historic county of Merionethshire ( cy, Meirionnydd, Sir Feirionnydd) un ...

, Wales and studied medicine at the University of Manchester qualifying in 1948. After graduation she worked in positions at

Ancoats Hospital The Ancoats Hospital and Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary (commonly known as Ancoats Hospital) was a large inner-city hospital located in Ancoats, to the north of the city centre of Manchester, England. It was built in 1875, replacing the Ardwick a ...

, Manchester and the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. She was an assistant health officer for

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three ...

from 1950-1956, and later Deputy Medical Officer of Health for

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest ...

. From 1961 to 1963 she was Deputy Medical Officer of Health for Gillingham, going on to become Medical Officer. From 1974 to 1982 she was a district community physician for the Medway Health District in Kent, going on to become District Medical Officer. She wrote and contributed to several reports on children's day nurseries, children with Down syndrome, and mental health services including ''The mental health service after unification: mental health in a unified National Health Service – report of the Tripartite Committee'' (London, Tripartite Committee, 1972), ) and ''Handbook of psychiatric rehabilitation practice'' (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1981). In 1959 she married

Derek Senior Derek Senior (4 May 1912 – 6 December 1988) was a British freelance writer principally known for being a member of the Royal Commission on Local Government in England, chaired by Lord Redcliffe-Maud. Early life and career Senior was born 4 May ...

, a freelance writer and journalist, who was a member of the Royal Commission on Local Government in England. Together they had a daughter, Jill. She died at her home in

Benderloch Benderloch ( gd, Meadarloch, ) is a village in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The name is derived from ''Beinn eadar dà loch'', meaning "mountain between two lochs". Benderloch lies on the A828 road in the coastal parish of Ardchattan, Argyll, Sc ...

, Scotland, on 14 March 2016, after a short illness.

Awards

In 1982 Mair received an

in the New Year Honours. She was a Fellow of the Faculty of Community Health, the

Royal College of Psychiatrists The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental health ...

and the Royal College of Physicians.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mair, Helen 1924 births 20th-century British medical doctors English medical writers People from Rotherham English women medical doctors Alumni of the University of Manchester 2016 deaths Fellows of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Faculty of Public Health Members of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century English women 20th-century English people