My mom, Patricia Dale, who has died aged 103, was a trailblazing physician, activist and socialist who turned basic secretary of the Medical Practitioners’ Union and drew on her experience in industrial well being to talk out towards the enlargement of Stansted airport within the early 2000s.
Born in Southampton, to Clemency (nee Wharton) and Cyrus Lloyd, a service provider seaman, Pat had a childhood formed by the lack of her mom to TB when she was 9 years outdated. Her father then married a rich widow who was eager for Pat to grow to be a debutante. Nevertheless, Pat insisted on leaving dwelling to review medication at College School London, considered one of only some girls to take action on the time.
After graduating in 1945, she served as a captain within the Royal Military Medical Corps and headed to India, the place she handled casualties from the struggle in Burma (now Myanmar). A quick wartime marriage to Keith Elliott resulted in divorce, although Pat stored the identify Elliott for skilled use.
On returning to the UK, in 1947 she took up research in public well being on the London College of Hygiene & Tropical Medication, the place she met Dr Gordon Evans, a widower with a younger daughter. They married in 1949 and moved close to to Chesham, in Buckinghamshire, and commenced working in public well being, with Pat working neighborhood toddler and youngster well being clinics. They had been energetic supporters of the Labour get together and CND, with Gordon changing into the primary medical adviser to the TUC.
He died immediately in 1961, leaving Pat the only real carer of 5 youngsters, 4 of whom had been underneath 5. She had just lately certified as a barrister and was eager to combine authorized work into her medical profession, however was compelled to return to work, first as a GP after which as basic secretary of the Medical Practitioners’ Union. Inside the 12 months she gave a speech on the TUC convention, then, with the sociologist Margot Jefferys, undertook a survey of feminine docs.
In 1962 she married Clunie Dale, then the social insurance coverage secretary on the TUC. Pat turned medical director of Harlow Industrial Well being Service (now Harlow Occupational Well being Service).
She was concerned with Amnesty Worldwide from its first marketing campaign within the early 60s to launch two imprisoned Portuguese docs against the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, and remained an activist in retirement, becoming a member of the Cease Stansted Enlargement marketing campaign in 2002 in addition to working as an occupational well being advisor. Her work in industrial well being meant she was an knowledgeable on environmental hazards and pollution, and he or she gave proof because the marketing campaign’s air high quality knowledgeable on the 2007 inquiry.
All through her life she remained a eager traveller – driving her youngsters throughout communist jap Europe in a big caravan within the early Nineteen Seventies – an avid theatregoer, and a terrific host of dinner events.
Clunie died in 2006. Pat is survived by her 5 youngsters, Anthony, Julie, Robert, Andrew and me from her marriage to Gordon, and Jane, from her marriage to Clunie; 4 stepchildren, Rosemary, Anna Clare, Richard and Diana; 18 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
