1 As one of only a few women to graduate from the University of Glasgow in medicine in the 30s, Maud Perry MacDougall was already remarkable before she set up one of the city’s earliest mass immunisation programmes. With vaccines very much on our minds at the moment, here’s a chance to learn more about a pioneer in the field.
2 As the highest ranked student in surgery in 1934, Dr Menzies was awarded the Sir William Macewen Medal. After a spell working alongside her husband in general practice, she took up the post of assistant Medical Officer for Health in Glasgow. At the time, the child death rate in Glasgow was the highest in Europe due in part to overcrowding in the slums, which allowed disease to spread quickly. She set up an immunisation programme for diphtheria – a deadly infection which can lead to breathing problems - in Rutherglen.
3 In 1942, she enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). She was posted to Normandy to work with the 79th British General Hospital soon after the D-Day landings in 1944.
4 After the war, Dr Menzies joined the Glasgow school health service and in 1967, she was appointed its Principal Medical Officer. She was an active member of the Scottish branch of the British Medical Association and later became chairperson of the Glasgow division. She established the Faculty of Community Health and was the only woman on its first committee. Now known as the Faculty of Public Health it is the body responsible for setting standards in training, examination and specialist practice across the UK.
READ MORE: Glasgow man's remarkable photos capture wartime exploits
5 Dr Menzies died on June 21, 1997. The medical bag and the syringe that she used to administer immunisations are held by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
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