Dame Janet Maria Vaughan, Mrs Gourlay (18 October 1899 – 9 January 1993), was a British

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out chemical and ...

, academic, and

academic administrator Academic administration is a branch of university or college employees responsible for the maintenance and supervision of the institution and separate from the faculty or academics, although some personnel may have joint responsibilities. Some ...

.Evelyn Irons
Obituary: Dame Janet Vaughan
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 12 January 1993. She researched

haematology Hematology ( spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the production ...

and radiation pathology. From 1945 to 1967, she served as

Principal Principal may refer to: Title or rank * Principal (academia), the chief executive of a university ** Principal (education), the head of a school * Principal (civil service) or principal officer, the senior management level in the UK Civil Ser ...

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

Early life

Born in Clifton, Bristol, she was the eldest of four children of

William Wyamar Vaughan William Wyamar Vaughan MVO (25 February 1865 – 4 February 1938) was a British educationalist. Vaughan was the son of Sir Henry Halford Vaughan, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. His mother Adeline Maria Jackson was Julia Stephen's ...

(a maternal first cousin of

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

and later headmaster of

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

) and Margaret "Madge" Symonds, daughter of

John Addington Symonds John Addington Symonds Jr. (; 5 October 1840 – 19 April 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies of writers and artists. Although mar ...

. At the time of her birth he was an assistant master at

Clifton College Clifton College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike mo ...

. She was educated at home, and later at North Foreland Lodge and

Somerville College Somerville College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The college's liberal tone derives from its f ...

, Oxford, where she studied medicine under

Charles Sherrington Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (27 November 1857 – 4 March 1952) was a British neurophysiologist. His experimental research established many aspects of contemporary neuroscience, including the concept of the spinal reflex as a system involving ...

and

J. B. S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-born scientist who later moved to India and acquired Indian citizenship. He worked in the fields of physiology, genetics, evolutionary ...

. She did her clinical training at

University College Hospital University College Hospital (UCH) is a teaching hospital in the Fitzrovia area of the London Borough of Camden, England. The hospital, which was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, is closely associated with University College Lo ...

, London, where she worked in London's slums and saw firsthand the effects of poverty on health. Later she received a scholarship from the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

to study at Harvard University.

Career

As a woman doctor, Vaughan had difficulties gaining access to patients and experimented on pigeons. Woolf described her as "an attractive woman; competent, disinterested, taking blood tests all day to solve abstract problems". As a young pathologist at the

Royal Postgraduate Medical School The Royal Postgraduate Medical School (RPMS) was an independent medical school, based primarily at Hammersmith Hospital in west London. In 1988, the school merged with the Institute of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, and in 1997 became part of Imperial ...

Hammersmith Hospital Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, London, White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the ...

in 1938 she initiated the creation of national blood banks in London, setting one up with Federico Duran-Jorda. The modified milk bottle for blood collection and storage was named " MRC bottle" or "Janet Vaughan". In 1945, she was sent to Belgium by the Medical Research Council to research starvation, and then into Germany; at war's end she was working in the

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen (), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen, Lower Saxony, Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, ...

and significantly improved the strategy to feed people suffering from extreme starvation. Vaughan's research included blood disease, blood transfusion, the treatment of starvation, and the effect of radioactivity on the bone and bone marrow. Her 1934 book, ''The Anaemias'', was one of the first specialised treatments of blood diseases. After the war, she became known for her work on the effects of

plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...

. From 1945 until her retirement in 1967, while working as a researcher at the

Churchill Hospital The Churchill Hospital is a teaching hospital in Oxford, England. It is managed by the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. History The original hospital on the site was built in 1940 with the intention of providing medical aid to ...

, she was

of Somerville College. She was Principal while Shirley Catlin (later

Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby (''née'' Catlin; 27 July 1930 – 12 April 2021) was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet ...

) and Margaret Roberts (who would later become the British Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

) studied there. She also served on the Royal Commission on Equal Pay, as a founder trustee of the

Nuffield Foundation The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors Ltd. It aims to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation projects in education and social pol ...

, and for one year as chairman of the Oxford Regional Hospital Board.

Honours

Vaughan was appointed

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(DBE) in the 1957

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

. Oxford University awarded her an honorary DCL in 1967. She was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS) in 1979.

Publications

* Vaughan, Janet. ''The Anemias''. London: Oxford University Press, 1934. * Vaughan, Janet. "Leuco-erythoblastic Anemias", ''Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology'' 17 (1936):541-64. * Vaughan, Janet. "Conditions at Belsen Concentration Camp", ''British Medical Journal'', Physiology and treatment of starvation ser. (1945):819 * Vaughan, Janet. ''The Physiology of Bone''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. * Vaughan, Janet. ''The Effect of Irradiation of the Skeleton''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.

Personal life

She married David Gourlay, of the Wayfarers' Travel Agency, in 1930. They had two daughters: Mary (1932) and Frances (1935).“Gourlay Mary A / Vaughan” in Register of Births for Paddington RD, vol. 1a (1932), p. 19; “Gourlay Frances P / Vaughan” in Register of Births for Marylebone RD, vol. 1a (1935), p. 605

References

External links

Royal College of Physicians profile of Dame Janet Vaughan
contains a detailed account of her life, based in part on her 1993 ''Independent'' obituary

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

Longreads article on Janet Vaughan by Rose George : A very naughty little girl : The extraordinary life of Janet Vaughan, who changed our relationship with blood
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan, Janet 1899 births 1993 deaths Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford British physiologists Women physiologists Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Female fellows of the Royal Society People educated at North Foreland Lodge Medical doctors from Bristol Place of death missing Principals of Somerville College, Oxford Radiobiologists Women radiobiologists Fellows of the Royal Society 20th-century British women scientists