Joan Alice Katherine Grigg, Baroness Altrincham ( Dickson-Poynder; 11 September 1897 – 1987) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

organiser of maternity and nursing services in

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. She disagreed with the

Governor of Kenya This article contains a list of chairmen, administrators, commissioners and governors of British Kenya Colony. The office of Governor of Kenya was replaced by the office of Governor General in 1963 and then later replaced by a President of Kenya ...

(her husband) about race issues and she established medical facilities for all races.

Life

Grigg was born in the country house called

Hartham Park Hartham Park is a Georgian manor house in Wiltshire, England, about north of the town of Corsham. Originally designed by James Wyatt, and set today in , it has within its grounds a stické tennis court. The house and nearby buildings were ...

near Corsam in Wiltshire. She was the first and last child of Ann (born Beauclerk) and

John Dickson-Poynder, 1st Baron Islington John Poynder Dickson-Poynder, 1st Baron Islington, (31 October 1866 – 6 December 1936), born John Poynder Dickson and known as Sir John Poynder Dickson-Poynder from 1884 to 1910, was a British politician. He was Governor of New Zealand between ...

. Her father volunteered his time to a hospital and her mother took an interest in nursing. In 1910, her father became Baron Islington and Governor of New Zealand. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

she became a nurse after being one of the thousands who volunteered for the

Volunteer Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...

. Aged nineteen, she was first based in Canterbury where she worked in a military hospital before she moved out to work in a hospital in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

in 1917. She went on to work with the French army before the war ended. In 1923 she married a Liberal Member of Parliament Edward Grigg. In 1925 her husband was made

. He was tasked with merging Uganda, Tanganyika and Kenya but ended up creating fine buildings and a steady administration that attracted investment. He believed that Africans were not ready to rule themselves and his administration took little interest in creating hospitals or health care. Like her parents and building on her wartime experience she took an interest in hospitals in Kenya (and this reflected well on her husband). She disagreed with her husbands views of white rule. She found the social life at Government House in Nairobi dull although she was befriended by

Karen Blixen Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (born Dinesen; 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962) was a Danish author who wrote works in Danish and English. She is also known under her pen names Isak Dinesen, used in English-speaking countrie ...

who was then a Danish farmer (but who would in time write

Out of Africa ''Out of Africa'' is a memoir by the Danish people, Danish author Karen Blixen. The book, first published in 1937, recounts events of the seventeen years when Blixen made her home in Kenya, then called East Africa Protectorate, British East Afr ...

about her time in Kenya.) She decided she was going to do something and she created the ''Lady Grigg Welfare League'' and the ''Lady Grigg Maternity in 1926 (or 1927) in

Pumwani Pumwani is an estate of Nairobi. In 2005 it had an estimated population of 29,616. The Pumwani Maternity Hospital is located in Pumwani. It is the largest public maternity hospital in Kenya. Many Kenyan freedom fighters are known to have lived ...

. She intended to create nursing and midwifery services to Kenyans irrespective of their race. That same year the league funded a welfare home for Arab and African children in Mombasa. The facility in

in Nairobi was also known as the ''African Maternity and Child Welfare Hospital and Training Centre''. She wrote a letter to

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

which attracted donations but may were earmarked for European hospitals. The league had created hostel facilities for trainee nurses for Europeans, but had also established welfare facilities for Indians and importantly maternity facilities for Africans. African women could have difficult and sometimes fatal births to female circumcision which was practised at that time.

Death and legacy

Grigg died in Tormarton Court. The Maternity unit she founded in Nairobi is now much expanded and is called the ''Pumwani Maternity Hospital''.

Private life

She married the politician

Edward Grigg Edward William Macleay Grigg, 1st Baron Altrincham, (8 September 1879 – 1 December 1955) was a British colonial administrator and politician. Biography Early years Grigg was the son of Henry Bridewell Grigg, CIE, a member of the Indian Civ ...

. They had three children: * John Edward Poynder Grigg, 2nd Baron Altrincham (15 April 1924 – 31 December 2001), a journalist and author * Hon. Annabel Desirée Grigg, (b. 19 November 1931), * Anthony Ulrick David Dundas Grigg, 3rd Baron Altrincham (b. 12 January 1934).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grigg, Joan 1897 births 1987 deaths Wives of knights People from Wiltshire Kenyan philanthropists British emigrants to Kenya