Dr Edith Margaret Taylor

Personal Details

Dr Edith Margaret Taylor MBBS FFARCS MRCS LRCP

07/02/1896 to 02/11/1955

Place of birth: Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire

Nationality: British

Post nominals:

CRN: 715478

Previous/other family name: Maiden name Ross-Johnson: married in 1926

Education and qualifications

General education

Oswestry High School; Francis Holland School, London; Newnham College, Cambridge; University College, London

Primary medical qualification(s)

MBBS, London, 1925

Initial Fellowship and type

FFARCS by Election

Year of Fellowship

1948

Other qualification(s)

MRCS LRCP, 1925; For some reason she does not seem to have acquired a Cambridge degree

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

Having completed her Cambridge studies she worked as demonstrator in physiology at the London (later the Royal Free) School of Medicine before completing her clinical studies. She was then resident medical officer at St Mary’s Hospital for Women & Children, Plaistow before being anaesthetic registrar at University College Hospital from 1926. She was appointed to the staff of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in 1929, and also worked at the Metropolitan Throat Hospital, the South London Hospital for Women and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, all in London. During WW2 she served as an anaesthetist in the EMS at the Neurological Hospital, Haywards Heath, Horton Hospital and the Hospital for Children, Tadworth Court, Surrey. Her career was cut short by her early death in 1955.

Professional interests and activities

Her great skill as an anaesthetist was based on her wide knowledge of physiology, and she was noted for her skill at managing thyroid surgery. She took a major part in the house committee of her main hospital (the EGA), improvements in the operating theatres there being due to her work.

Other biographical information

She married a surgeon, Julian Taylor, and they had two sons. Her great calm and courage were shown by the way she continued to work durng WW2 while her husband was a PoW in Changi, Singapore, and how she bore her final illness.

 

Author and Sources

Author: Dr Bob Palmer

Sources and any other comments: Obituaries (both with photograph). BMJ 1955; 1: 1211-12 & Anaesthesia 1956; 11: 182 | Newnham College, Cambridge