Janet Mary Campbell

Dame Janet Mary Campbell, DBE, JP (5 March 1877 – 27 September 1954) was a British physician and medical officer. Active in refugee relief, Campbell assisted orphaned Basque children following the fascist bombings of the Basque region of Spain, particularly Guernica, during the Spanish Civil War.

Janet Mary Campbell
Janet Mary Campbell, from a 1924 publication.
Born5 March 1877
Brighton
Died27 September 1954
London
NationalityBritish
OccupationPhysician, medical officer

Early life

Janet Mary Campbell was born in Brighton, the daughter of George Campbell, and Mary Letitia Rowe. Her father was a Scottish bank manager. She earned her medical degree in 1904, after study at the London School of Medicine for Women.[1][2]

Career

Campbell worked as a surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital[3] and the Belgrave Hospital for Children early in her career. She served as Senior Medical Officer for Maternity and Child Welfare at the Ministry of Health[4] and, from 1907, Chief Woman Medical Adviser to the Board of Education.[1] She helped in preparing the 1923 Hadow Report, Differentiation of the curriculum for boys and girls respectively in secondary schools.[5][6] She took particular interest in maternal death,[7] vaccination,[8] and child protection. In 1927, she gave a course of lectures at the Kings College, London, on "Maternal Mortality", saying "We need more study and better investigation into the cause of this tragedy". She suggested subsidised midwifery services and postnatal clinics as two possible measures.[9][10]

Campbell visited Australia in 1929, to consult on maternal and child health policy.[11][12] In 1934 she married and had to resign her civil service job.[11][13][14] In 1937, she assisted orphaned Basque children following the fascist bombings of the Basque region of Spain, particularly Guernica, during the Spanish Civil War.[15][16] In 1938, she chaired the Public Health Committee of the International Council of Women, presenting a report on malnutrition.[17]

Campbell served on the Health Committee of the League of Nations. During World War II, she was a member of the War Cabinet's Committee of Women in Industry. Campbell was a founding member of the Medical Women's Federation, and served a term as the federation's president from 1944 to 1946.[13] She was a justice of the peace in Surrey and Gloucestershire.[1]

Personal life

Campbell married Michael Heseltine, registrar of the General Medical Council, in 1934.[18] He died in 1952. She died in 1954, in London, aged 77 years.[1][19]

Honours

Selected bibliography of writings by Campbell
  • Midwives and Midwifery. Voluntary work for infant welfare. Play centres and playgrounds (Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. Report on the Physical Welfare of Mothers and Children. England and Wales, vol. 2; 1917)
  • The training of midwives, (Great Britain. Ministry of Health. Reports on public health and medical subjects; 1923)
  • Notes on the arrangements for teaching obstetrics and gynæcology in the medical schools (1923)
  • Maternal mortality (Reports on public health and medical subjects; 1924)
  • The protection of motherhood (British Ministry of Health reports on public health and medical subjects; 1927)
  • Infant mortality; international inquiry of the Health organisation of the League of nations, English section (1929)
  • Report on Maternal and Child Welfare in Australia (papers presented to Parliament/Session 1929–31, volume 2; 1930)
  • National Health Services and Preventive Methods for improving National Health (1943)

References
  1. Hogarth, Margaret (25 May 2006). "Campbell, Dame Janet Mary (1877–1954), medical officer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32267. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  2. "University of London, Intermediate Examination in Medicine, January 1899". The Times. 9 February 1899. p. 12. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Health Ministry Changes". The Guardian. 12 January 1934. p. 8. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Too Many Deaths in Childbirth". The Guardian. 27 January 1926. p. 11. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "The Hadow Report, part I". Archived from the original on 5 March 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
  6. "The Hadow Report, part II". Archived from the original on 5 March 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
  7. "High Death-Rate of Mothers; English Woman Doctors Task in Australia; A Serious Problem". The Guardian. 18 June 1929. p. 16. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Smallpox Danger;Becoming an Unvaccinated People; Incalculable Harm Done by Measles". The Guardian. 30 December 1926. p. 3. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Women's Deaths in Childbirth; Improved Midwifery Needed". The Guardian. 28 December 1927. p. 12. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Dangers after Childbirth; The Need for Clinics; A National Service Urged". The Guardian. 21 March 1936. p. 22. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Miss Campbell". The Dinner Puzzle. 14 July 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  12. "Child Welfare in Australia; Dame Janet Campbell to Prepare a Scheme". The Guardian. 15 May 1929. p. 12. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Hartley, Cathy (15 April 2013). A Historical Dictionary of British Women. Routledge. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-135-35533-3.
  14. "Retirement of Dame Janet Campbell". The Lancet. 223 (5759): 89. 13 January 1934. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(01)03113-0. ISSN 0140-6736.
  15. "Basque children orphaned during the Spanish Civil War". Archived from the original on 25 July 2009. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  16. "Basque Children's Return; A Legal Commission". The Guardian. 2 October 1937. p. 17. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Malnutrition a World-Wide Problem". The Guardian. 18 July 1938. p. 12. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "Dame Janet Campbell Married". The Guardian. 19 February 1934. p. 8. Retrieved 19 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. Macnalty, Arthur S. (October 1954). "Dame Janet M. Campbell, D.B.E." Nature. 174 (4433): 722–723. Bibcode:1954Natur.174..722M. doi:10.1038/174722a0. ISSN 1476-4687.
  20. "Birthday Honours for Child Welfare Workers" Maternity and Child Welfare (July 1924): 219.
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