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Diana Beck

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British neurosurgeon (1900-1956)

Diana Beck
Born29 June 1900
Hoole, Chester, England
Died3 March 1956(1956-03-03) (aged 55)
Education
OccupationNeurosurgeon
Medical career
ProfessionSurgeon
Institutions

Diana Jean Kinloch Beck (29 June 1900 or 1902 – 3 March 1956) was the first British female neurosurgeon. She established the neurosurgery service at the Middlesex Hospital in London. In 1952 she gained a public profile for performing life-saving surgery on A. A. Milne.

Early life and education

Diana Beck was born on 29 June 1900, in Hoole, Chester, to James Beck, a tailor, and Margaret Helena Kinloch. She attended The Queen's School before studying medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women, where she won two prizes and a scholarship.

Medical career

Beck's skill in surgery was recognised by Louisa Aldrich-Blake and after graduating in 1925, Beck was house surgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and then at the Royal Free Hospital. Beck took time away from her career to care for her mother who was seriously ill. She then worked in general practice in Wrexham before returning to the Royal Free as Surgical Registrar from 1932 to 1936.

Beck chose to specialise in neurosurgery and trained under Hugh Cairns at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, where she also acted as a general surgeon providing treatment to injured soldiers during the war. In 1939, she was awarded the William Gibson Research Scholarship for Medical Women by the Royal Society of Medicine, and used the grant to undertake research in Oxford with Dorothy Stuart Russell. Using animal experiments, they investigated the causes of idiopathic intracranial hypertension and experimented with various graft materials for cranioplasty.

In 1943, Beck was appointed consultant neurosurgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and the Royal Free, but war damage meant that she was unable to establish her new department. In 1944, she was sent to Chase Farm Hospital, where she took charge of air-raid casualties with head injuries and notably performed a lengthy operation that saved a nurse whose brain was protruding from her skull and was expected to die. Beck then went to Bristol as Regional Adviser in Neurosurgery to the emergency medical service for south-west England, working at the Burden Neurological Institute and travelling to consult around the area.

Beck became a consultant neurosurgeon at Middlesex Hospital in 1947, making her the first female consultant at a London teaching hospital that did not admit women students. At Middlesex, she was the first woman and the first neurosurgeon on staff, as well as being the only consultant neurosurgeon in western Europe and North America at the time. Beck set up and ran the neurosurgery service at Middlesex, and published important research on the management of intracerebral haemorrhage.

In 1952 Beck received attention in the press for performing lifesaving surgery on A. A. Milne, the author of Winnie-the-Pooh, two months after he suffered a brain haemorrhage. The Times praised her "remarkable piece of surgery". According to his son Christopher, after the stroke and surgery he remained "partly paralyzed" with a "distinct change in character", though he survived a further three years.

Beck was the President of the London Association of the Medical Women's Federation for two years.

First female neurosurgeon

A 2008 profile in Neurosurgery credits Beck as the world's first female neurosurgeon. The claim has also been made for the Romanian Sofia Ionescu, although the author notes that Ionescu only finished medical school in 1945, when Beck was already working as a consultant in neurosurgery.

Personal life

Beck was considered skilled in drawing and needlework, hobbies which complemented the skills necessary for surgery.

Death and legacy

Diana Beck memorial plaque at Fitzrovia Chapel

Beck suffered from myasthenia gravis and underwent a thymectomy in 1956 to treat a myasthenic crisis. She died at the Middlesex Hospital soon after the procedure from a pulmonary embolism on 3 March 1956. She is commemorated with a plaque in the Fitzrovia Chapel, part of the Middlesex Hospital.

Beck was recipient of an English Heritage blue plaque in 2024, alongside Christina Broom, Irene Barclay and Adelaide Hall.

Selected publications

Notes

  1. Beck's date of birth as per the Civil Registration of Births Index for England and Wales is 1900. This is reflected in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Her date of birth on the plaque in the Fitzrovia Chapel was listed as 1902 and this date was used in the initial announcement of her blue plaque but the plaque date was then corrected to 1900.

References

  1. ^ Series, Hugh (2004). "Beck, Diana Jean Kinloch". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60886. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ 1939 England and Wales Register. The National Archives, Kew, London, England. 1939 – via ancestry.co.uk.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. Hunt, Benjamin W.; Pow, Stephen; Stahnisch, Frank W. (October 2021). "Diana Jean Kinloch Beck (1902–1956)". Journal of Neurology. 268 (10): 3940–3942. doi:10.1007/s00415-021-10408-w. PMC 8463402. PMID 33555420.
  4. ^ "Record number of women celebrated with English Heritage blue plaques in 2024". English Heritage. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Obituary: Diana Jean Kinloch Beck MB BS Lond. FRCS Eng, FRCS". Medical Women's Federation Journal: 140–5. April 1956.
  6. ^ Gilkes, Catherine E. (2008). "An account of the life and achievements of Miss Diana Beck, neurosurgeon (1902-1956)". Neurosurgery. 62 (3): 738–42. doi:10.1227/01.neu.0000317324.71483.e5. PMID 18425021. S2CID 115858044.
  7. ^ "Beck, Diana Jean Kinloch (1902–1956)". Plarr's Lives of the Fellows. Royal College of Surgeons. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  8. Thwaite, Ann (2013). A.A. Milne : his life. London: Bello. p. 594. ISBN 978-1-4472-5307-5.
  9. "Diana Beck | neurosurgeon | blue plaques". English Heritage. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
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