Patricia Horne (born c.1929), is an Irish medical doctor who spent the beginning of her career working in Africa in Nigeria in the 1950s. She returned, responding to
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
Patricia Horne was born circa 1929 to Delia Moclair and Andrew Horne Jr, with her twin sister Margaret. Her grandfather was Andrew Horne, founder and first joint master of
Holles Street
Holles Street is a street in Marylebone in the City of Westminster in central London that runs from the south side of Cavendish Square to Oxford Street.
History
The street was one of those laid out around 1729 when the area north of Oxford Stree ...
maternity hospital. Her mother studied medicine at Queen’s College, Belfast and came to work in Holles Street. Her father was a
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...
officer at
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...
before returning to Dublin and marrying Moclair in 1925. Horne grew up wanting to be a surgeon, and she and her sister went to the Ursulines secondary school in Waterford.
Horne went to study medicine in University College Dublin. While in college, Horne lead the UCD women's hockey team to Irish Senior Cup victory in 1951; the cup was not won by UCD again for 58 years. Horne graduated in 1955. Initially, Horne got a job working as a surgeon in Cashel, County Tipperary. In the early period for women as doctors in Ireland, they often found it easier to work in public health, and so, with her mother's experience behind her, Horne also completed a Diploma in Public Health.
Overseas work
Horne wanted to work overseas and her father's experience at Gallipoli led him to want his daughter to work with nuns if she did so. She applied for government public health operations in Hong Kong, Africa and India but in 1957 went to work on a two year contract to a missionary hospital in Nsukka, Nigeria. The hospital was run by the Holy Rosary Sisters. The country was just three years from achieving independence from Britain in 1960. The hospital was remote and struggling with no electricity or water, and both tuberculosis and yaws were endemic. Childbirth and obstetrics was a major part of Horne's work in the hospital. She was the only doctor in the hospital and worked every day. Some of the surgery methods used due to decisions made locally had strong arguments in their favour but have been controversial in other locations. After two years she left and returned home. A back injury forced Horne to give up surgery and she took up psychiatry and worked in Ireland until her retirement in 1994.
After retirement, Horne returned to work in
Monze
Monze is a small town (population 30,000) in the Southern Province of Zambia and is about 180 km south-west of Lusaka. It is the administrative centre of Monze District.malaria and AIDS-related TB.