Dame

Beulah Bewley

DBE
Born
Beulah Rosemary Knox

(1929-09-02)2 September 1929
County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, UK
Died20 January 2018(2018-01-20) (aged 88)
London, England, UK
EducationAlexandra College
Trinity College Dublin
Occupationpublic health physician
Known forPresident of the Medical Women's Federation on the General Medical Council
Spouse
Thomas Bewley
​
(m. 1955)​
Children5, including Susan

Dame Beulah Rosemary Bewley DBE (née Knox; 2 September 1929 – 20 January 2018)[1] was a British public health physician and past president of the Medical Women's Federation on the General Medical Council.

Early life and education

Bewley was born Beulah Rosemary Knox[2] on 2 September 1929 in a Protestant family in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, the second of three daughters of Ina Eagleson Knox (née Charles), who came from a wealthy family, and John Benjamin Knox, who worked for the Ulster Bank.[3] Aged 14 she became a boarder at Dublin's Alexandra College.[3]

Aged five, Bewley decided that she wanted to become a doctor,[2] and went on to qualify as a doctor at Trinity College Dublin in 1953.[3] In 1955, she married Thomas Bewley and moved to England where she worked in paediatrics for fifteen years, before undertaking a MSc degree in social medicine at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,[4] where she was the only woman in the class.[4][5]

Career

After training in public health, she worked at several institutions in London including the Academic Department of Community Medicine at King's College Hospital Medical School, the Department of Community Medicine, St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.[6]

In 1982, she served on the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom.She served on the Royal Society of Medicine's section on Epidemiology and Public Health.[6]

Her medical school, Trinity College, celebrated its tercentenary in 2011,[7] and Bewley served on the tercentenary board from 2007 to 2012.[2]

Awards and honours

General

Medical

Selected works

Autobiography

Publications on smoking

Other publications

Quotes

Personal life

In Bewley's fourth year at Trinity College Dublin, she met a young psychiatrist, Thomas Bewley, from a Quaker family that owned Bewley's coffee shops.[3] They married in 1955, and had five children.[15] Their second daughter, born with Down Syndrome, defied early expectations regarding her health, and lived until the age of 44.[15]

She was greatly upset when her daughter Susan came out as a lesbian, but the rift was healed. Susan went on to become a medical professor, and to write her mother's memoirs.[16]

Death

Dame Beulah Bewley died from cardiovascular disease and dementia on 20 January 2018 at the age of 88 in London.[17] [15] She was survived by four children and her husband.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Birthdays". The Guardian. Guardian News & Media. 2 September 2014. p. 37.
  2. ^ a b c "Pioneering force for women in medicine". The Irish Times. 17 February 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e Richmond, Caroline (22 February 2018). "Dame Beulah Bewley obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  4. ^ a b Loughlin, Kelly (October 2001). "Epidemiology, social medicine and public health. A celebration of the 90th birthday of Professor JN Morris". International Journal of Epidemiology. 30 (5): 1198–1199. doi:10.1093/ije/30.5.1198. PMID 11689545.Open access icon
  5. ^ Kilbane, Paula. "Obituary: Beulah Bewley". IMJ. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  6. ^ a b Bewley, Beulah (2016). Bewley, Susan (ed.). Beulah Bewley – My Life as a Woman and Doctor. SilverWood Books. ISBN 978-1781324196.
  7. ^ Weir, Donald (20 February 2007). "The Tercentenary of the Trinity College Medical School (2011)". Trinity College Dublin. Archived from the original on 5 July 2007.
  8. ^ a b "Knighthood after 50 years". BBC News. 31 December 1999.
  9. ^ Dublin, Trinity College. "Recipients - Honorary Degrees - Registrar : Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland". www.tcd.ie. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  10. ^ "Dame Beulah Rosemary Bewley". Royal College of Physicians. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  11. ^ Bewley, Beulah R.; Bland, J. Martin; Harris, R (1974). "Factors associated with the starting of cigarette smoking by primary school children". British Journal of Social and Preventive Medicine. 28 (1): 37–44. doi:10.1136/jech.28.1.37. PMC 478813. PMID 4816586. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  12. ^ Bland, J. Martin; Bewley, Beulah R.; Day, Isobel (1975). "Primary schoolboys: image of self and smoker" (PDF). British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine. 29 (4): 262–266. doi:10.1136/jech.29.4.262. PMC 478924. PMID 1220837. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  13. ^ Bewley, Beulah R. (11 February 1984). "Smoking in pregnancy". British Medical Journal. 288 (6415): 424–6. doi:10.1136/bmj.288.6415.424. PMC 1444714. PMID 6419949.
  14. ^ Pletten, S. P. Jackson, A. D. Salisbury, William A. Baker, Leroy J. "1889 Michigan House of Representatives Cigarette Hazards Report". medicolegal.tripod.com. Retrieved 10 April 2018.((cite web)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ a b c Manby, Christine (13 February 2018). "Beulah Bewley: Doctor who fought for women in the medical profession". The Independent. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  16. ^ "The remarkable story of the Londonderry doctor from a wealthy family who was made a Dame for her pioneering work to save women's lives". Retrieved 10 April 2018 – via www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk.
  17. ^ Obituary, thelancet.com; accessed 1 January 2022.
Categories