Gweneth Whitteridge FRCP (20 October 1910 – 3 September 1993), a British scholar of medical history, was president of the

History of Medicine Society The History of Medicine Society (HoMS) (formerly "section"), at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), London, was founded by Sir William Osler in 1912, and later became one of the four founder medical societies of the British Society for the His ...

of the

Royal Society of Medicine The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society based at 1 Wimpole Street, London, UK. It is a registered charity, with admission through membership. Its Chief Executive is Michele Acton. History The Royal Society of Medicine (R ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

from 1983 to 1985. She was an acknowledged authority on the English physician

William Harvey William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions to anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, pulmonary and systemic circulation ...

and his works.

Life

Gweneth Whitteridge was born on 20 October 1910 in London. Her father, Samuel Hutchings, was a corn merchant in London. Whitteridge was educated at

City of London School for Girls The City of London School for Girls (CLSG) is a private school adjacent to the Barbican Centre, part of the Barbican Estate, in the City of London. It is the partner school of the all-boys City of London School and the City of London Freemen's ...

, and then from 1929 studied mediaeval French at

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, located on a bank of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The ...

. She then studied

palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

at the Sorbonne, returning to Oxford afterwards to complete her Bachelor of Arts, and then a DPhil on an Anglo-Norman text. After lecturing in French at the

University of Wales, Bangor Bangor University () is a public research university in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. It was established by Royal Charter in 1885 as the University College of North Wales (UCNW; ), and in 1893 became one of the founding institutions of the federal ...

and Oxford during the Second World War, Whitteridge was appointed as archivist to

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by ...

, London. She wrote a histories of the hospital in 1952 and again in 1963. Whitteridge became known as a world authority on English physician William Harvey. In 1953 Whitteridge was asked by

Geoffrey Keynes Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes ( ; 25 March 1887, Cambridge – 5 July 1982, Cambridge) was a British surgeon and author. He began his career as a physician in World War I, before becoming a doctor at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, where he ...

to undertake the translation and transcription of an unpublished work of Harvey, ''De motu locali animalium''. Her translation was published in 1959. She went on to translate other Harvey works, including ''Prelectiones anatomia universalis'' and ''De musculis.'' Whitteridge was elected a Fellow of the Academie Internationale de l’Histoire des Sciences and an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Whitteridge was president of the History of Medicine Society of the Royal Society of Medicine of the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1985. Whitteridge died on 3 September 1993. She was survived by her husband, physiologist David Whitteridge, and three daughters. Her papers are archived at the

Wellcome Collection Wellcome Collection is a museum and library based at 183 Euston Road, London, England, displaying a mixture of medical artefacts and original artworks exploring "ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art". Founded in 2007, the W ...

in London.

Works

* ''The Royal Hospital of Saint Bartholomew'' (1952) * ''A brief history of the Hospital of Saint Bartholomew'' ith Veronica Stokes(1963) * ''William Harvey and the circulation of the blood'' (1969)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitteridge, Gweneth Presidents of the History of Medicine Society Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians 1910 births 1993 deaths English archivists People educated at the City of London School for Girls