Innes Hope Pearse (1889–1978) was an English medical doctor who co-founded a health centre that became famous as part of the

Peckham Experiment The Peckham Experiment was an experiment designed to determine whether people as a whole would, given the opportunity, take a vested interest in their own health and fitness and expend effort to maintain it. The experiment took place between 192 ...

. This was a project rooted in Pearse's interest in studying and promoting health in a social context.

Education and early career

She grew up in Purley, Surrey with her parents Catherine Beardsley Pearse ''née'' Morley and George Edgar Hope Pearse, an exporter. After going to a private school in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, Woodford House School, she studied at the London School of Medicine for Women where she qualified as a doctor in 1915. After a couple of years at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Women and Children, she was back in London in 1918. Her next post was at the Great Northern Hospital, and then she became a registrar at the London Hospital (one of the first women to become a hospital registrar) followed by a job at St Thomas's.David Goodway, ‘Williamson, George Scott (1883–1953)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, May 2012
/ref> For seven years she was also part-time medical adviser to the

Alice Model Alice Model (1856–1943) was a leader of the Union of Jewish Women. She founded and supported organisations promoting family welfare and other philanthropic causes. Personal life Alice Isabella Model née Sichel was born on 13 November 1856, the ...

infant welfare centre in the

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

, a charitable project.Alison Stallibrass, ''Being Me and Also Us: Lessons from the Peckham Experiment'', Scottish Academic Press 1989, p9 She continued this alongside a

thyroid The thyroid, or thyroid gland, is an endocrine gland in vertebrates. In humans it is in the neck and consists of two connected lobes. The lower two thirds of the lobes are connected by a thin band of tissue called the thyroid isthmus. The thy ...

research project at the

Royal Free Hospital The Royal Free Hospital (also known simply as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barn ...

which she joined as a medical registrarObituary 'Innes H Pearse, MD' ''British Medical Journal'', 1:6163, March 1979 p630
/ref> in 1921, working with George Scott Williamson.

Health and welfare work

Pearse's work in infant welfare brought her to the attention of a group wanting to help working-class women access contraception. From 1924, she held discussions with that group at the Royal Free, which drew her and Williamson into the whole question of public health. Out of this the Pioneer Health Centre was born: first in a modest house in

Peckham Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon p ...

, and later in a modern architect-designed building opened in 1935. The project, presented as a "family club" with leisure activities and also health "overhauls", became known as the

. Pearse thought doctors and others needed to take a "deeper look at the natural laws governing health in human society". and that the medical profession should not be "overly focused on illness" but should also prioritise "understanding, evaluating, and cultivating health". She believed strongly in leaving responsibility with the individual and, in this spirit, doctors at the Pioneer Centre gave health checks and medical information but left people to decide what to do, whether to seek treatment etc. She did not agree with "welfare" models that meant offering piecemeal help, with no thought of self-reliance. Pearse always saw the individual human, and the idea of "positive health", in the context of family and society. This fitted with a generally holistic approach adopted by both Pearse and Williamson, leading to an interest in organic food which they hoped would compensate for the poor quality of food generally available in Peckham. From 1935 Pearse leased Oakley Farm in Bromley, Kent,Wellcome Library: The Pioneer Health Centre and positive health
/ref> where organic food was grown for members of the Health Centre. When she and Williamson were in Kent they lived at the farm as a couple. They were founder members of the Soil Association and their work was an influence on

Lady Eve Balfour Lady Evelyn Barbara Balfour, (16 July 1898 – 16 January 1990) was a British farmer, educator, organic farming pioneer, and a founding figure in the organic movement. She was one of the first women to study agriculture at an English university ...

, its first president. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Pearse proposed a "homestead" scheme for mothers and children whose menfolk were away at war. She believed they could live healthily and productively in farm communities. A few families from Peckham did go to live at Oakley Farm during the war until it was requisitioned by the RAF. The farm was taken over around 1950 by Mary Langman who had been secretary at Peckham and who was another founder member of the Soil Association.

Legacy

The Peckham Experiment came to an end in 1950 when it proved to be incompatible with the new

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

which was more concerned with treating illness than with nurturing good health, and which had less interest in community and self-reliance. Over the years Pearse had published various books and articles, several co-authored with Williamson, including papers on their thyroid research in the 1920s. She also promoted her ideas through talks and articles in regional newspapers. Professionally, she was generally known as Innes H. Pearse. Her 1942 book, ''The Peckham experiment'', is still being re-published in the 21st century and the Peckham Experiment is still being written about by others. The Pioneer Health Foundation (also known as the Pioneer Health Centre Ltd.) takes some of Pearse's and Williamson's ideas forward.Pioneer Health Centre Ltd.
/ref> * 1931 ''The Case for Action: a survey of everyday life under modern industrial conditions, with special reference to the question of health'', with G.S. Williamson * 1942 ''The Peckham experiment: a study in the living structure of society'', with Lucy Crocker * 1944 ''Observations on the population question: a memorandum presented to the Royal Commission on population by Innes H. Pearse'' * 1947 ''Biologists in Search of Material'', with G.S. Williamson * 1951 ''The Passing of Peckham'', with G.S. Williamson * 1979 ''The Quality of Life: the Peckham Approach to Human Ethology'' Pearse married Williamson on 20 February 1950 in Bromley. They lived together at the Mill House, Argos Hill, Rotherfield, Sussex until Williamson's death three years later. Pearse prepared his theoretical ''Science, Synthesis and Sanity'' for publication in 1965 and worked on her own "reflective" book ''The Quality of Life'', published posthumously. She died at the Mill House on 25 December 1978.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearse, Innes Hope 1889 births 1978 deaths English women medical doctors Organic farmers Physicians of the Royal Free Hospital Physicians of St Thomas' Hospital Women founders