Mary Hemingway Rees

Mary Hemingway Rees
MRCS, LRCP, ChB
Born Mary Isobel Hemingway
(1887-09-10)10 September 1887
Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England
Died 4 October 1954(1954-10-04) (aged 67)
London, England
Nationality British
Occupation Psychiatrist
Spouse(s) John Rawlings Rees (m. 1921)
Children 1

Mary Hemingway Rees (10 September 1887 – 4 October 1954), born Mary Isobel Hemingway, was an English psychiatrist.

Early life

Mary Isobel Hemingway was born in Melton Mowbray. She was the daughter of Charles Robert Hemingway, CBE, JP, a railway contractor.[1]

Education

She studied at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, followed by medical education at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Birmingham.[2]

Career

She qualified as a medic in 1914. After qualifying, she worked in obstetrics at Queen’s Hospital and Birmingham General Hospital. Between 1916 and 1918, she worked at St Chad’s Hospital, Birmingham.[2]

After the First World War, Mary Hemingway worked as the resident medical officer at Bowden House, a nursing home for neurotics run by Hugh Crichton-Miller.[3] At Bowden, she met the psychiatrist John Rawlings Rees, who she married in 1921. ‘J.R.’ and Crichton-Miller established the Tavistock Clinic in 1920, and Hemingway Rees joined the staff there as a psychiatrist.[4] Hemingway Rees continued her work with patients at the Tavistock throughout World War II.[3]

In addition to being a practicing psychiatrist, Hemingway Rees was an active member of the Medical Women’s Federation, and was the chairman of its committee on psychological medicine.[2] She also supported charitable causes.[5] Hemingway Rees was a founder of the World Federation for Mental Health (of which her husband became the first president), and hosted WFMH events and participated in both the scientific and social programmes of meetings.[6]

Death and legacy

She died shortly after returning from the WFMH Congress in Canada in 1954: the Federation acknowledged her contribution to the field by establishing the Mary Hemingway Rees Memorial Lecture.[3] This lecture, delivered annually to the WFMH congress since 1958, addresses the theme of ‘spiritual values in mental health’, in accordance with her interests.[7]

References

  1. Dicks, Henry V. "John Rawlings Rees". Munk's Roll. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "Mary I. Hemingway-Rees". British Medical Journal 2 (4898): 1233–1234. 20 November 1954. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Dicks, Henry V. (1970). Fifty years of the Tavistock Clinic. London: Routledge & K. Paul. pp. 14, 26, 118, 266–267.
  4. Rees, John Rawlings (1966). Reflections: A Personal History and an Account of the Growth of the World Federation for Mental Health. United States Committee of the World Federation for Mental Health.
  5. Hemingway Rees, Mary (28 December 1937). "Fellowship of St Michael". The Times (London, UK). p. 8.
  6. "WFMH Newsletter: February 2013" (PDF). February 2013. p. 1. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
  7. Smith, Donald E. (July 1974). "The Next Decade of Dialogue: Religion and Health". Journal of Religion and Health 13 (3): 161–179. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, March 23, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.