Stella Churchill

FRCS Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional certification, professional qualification to practise as a senior surgeon in Republic of Ireland, Ireland or the United Kingdom. It is bestowed on an wikt:intercollegiate, ...

LRCP The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of p ...

(5 June 1883 – September 16, 1954), was a British medical psychologist and

psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...

who specialised in the health of women and children.

Early life

She was born Stella Myers on 5 June 1883Obituary in The Times, 20 September 1954
/ref> in

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...

, Birmingham, the daughter of George Myers (b. 1841) and Flora Wertheimer (1851–1921). She was the great-granddaughter of

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...

Akiba Wertheimer, and great niece of German philosopher Constantin Brunner. Her brother

Walter Walter may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–19 ...

was an eminent physician and

parasitologist Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it f ...

, and her sister

Violet Violet may refer to: Common meanings * Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue * One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly: ** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants Places United States * Vi ...

was a classical singer. She married British diplomat Sidney Churchill on 31 October 1908 from whom she later separated. They had a son, George (b. 1910), and a daughter, Ruth Isabella (1912–1998), Her sister

married William Algernon Churchill, one of her husband's brothers.

Education

After Edgbaston High School she went to

Girton College Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the univ ...

Cambridge to read Natural Science, graduating in 1905. Following her marriage in 1908 she went on to read medicine at the

London School of Medicine for Women The London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW) established in 1874 was the first medical school in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Britain to train women as doctors. The patrons, vice-presidents, and members of the committee that supp ...

. She obtained a Diploma in Public Health in Cambridge in 1921.

Career

After qualifying as a doctor in 1917 she held junior posts at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, the

Victoria Hospital for Children The Victoria Hospital for Children, which later merged into St George's Hospital, was a hospital in Tite Street, London. History The hospital was established at Gough House in Tite Street in October 1866. Gough House had been built c1710 by John ...

, and the Italian Hospital, before being appointed anaesthetist to the British Red Cross Hospital at

Netley Netley, officially Netley Abbey, is a village on the south coast of Hampshire, England. It is situated to the south-east of the city of Southampton, and flanked on one side by the ruins of Netley Abbey and on the other by the Royal Victoria Co ...

in 1918. She was Assistant Medical Officer for Health for Maternity and Child Welfare at

Bermondsey Bermondsey ( ) is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, ...

from 1920 to 1922, and First Assistant then Deputy Medical Officer for Health for St Pancras from 1922 to 1924. She was a Fellow of the Maternity and Child Welfare Group of the Society of Medical Officers of Health and served as its president. She was a keen supporter of the

Save the Children Fund The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...

and served on its council. She retired from public health service and became interested in medical psychology and was appointed psychotherapist to the

Tavistock Clinic The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health trust based in north London. The Trust specialises in talking therapies. The education and training department caters for 2,000 students a year from the United Kin ...

and the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases. Churchill took a strong interest in

infertility In biology, infertility is the inability of a male and female organism to Sexual reproduction, reproduce. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy organism that has reached sexual maturity, so children who have not undergone puberty, whi ...

sexually transmitted diseases A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, oral ...

, and

eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...

and was a member of the

Eugenics Society The Adelphi Genetics Forum is a non-profit learned society based in the United Kingdom. Its aims are "to promote the public understanding of human heredity and to facilitate informed debate about the ethical issues raised by advances in reproducti ...

serving on its committee from 1931. She lived at Strand Green House, No 1

Strand-on-the-Green Strand-on-the-Green is one of Chiswick's four medieval villages, and a "particularly picturesque" riverside area in West London. It is a conservation area, with many "imposing" listed buildings beside the River Thames; a local landmark, the K ...

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district in West London, split between the London Borough of Hounslow, London Boroughs of Hounslow and London Borough of Ealing, Ealing. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist Wi ...

, from about 1923–32 where her houseguests included the writer 'Elizabeth' Mary Beauchamp, author

Margaret Kennedy Margaret Davies, Lady Davies (née Kennedy ; 23 April 1896 – 31 July 1967) was an English novelist and playwright. Her most successful work, as a novel and as a play, was '' The Constant Nymph''. She was a productive writer and several of her ...

who used Strand Green House in her book ''The Constant Nymph'', and sculptor Joseph Armitage. She opened the first local child welfare clinic at Strand on the Green School.Strand on the Green School
/ref> She wrote many books on maternity and child welfare.Books by Stella Churchill
/ref>

Public life

From 1925 to 1932 she represented South East Southwark on the

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

. She was parliamentary Labour candidate for Hackney North in 1924 and for Brentford and Chiswick in 1929.

Death

She died on 16 September 1954 in

Menton, France Menton (; in classical norm or in Mistralian norm, , ; ; or depending on the orthography) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Menton ...

, aged 71.

Bibliography

*''Nursing in the Home, including first aid in common emergencies'', Modern Health Books, 1925 *''The Hygiene Of Life And Safer Motherhood'', Edited by Sir W Arbuthnot Lane, plus Sir William Wilcox, Sir R Armstrong-Jones, Sir B Bruce-Porter; Dr E Sloan Chesser; Dr Stella Churchill; Dr Caleb W Saleeby; et al. 1925 *''Health Services and the Public'', Noel Douglas, London, 1928 *''On being a mother'', Gollancz 1936 *''The Adolescent and the Family'', London, The Cresset Press, 1949 *''Ailments of Childhood - A Vintage Article on Appendicitis, Colds, Fevers, Tuberculosis and Other Childhood Ailments'', Hughes Press

References

External links

Photograph of Dr Stella Churchill at The National Portrait Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Churchill, Stella 1883 births 1954 deaths British Jews British people of Polish-Jewish descent British psychotherapists Members of London County Council Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Labour Party (UK) councillors 20th-century British psychologists British eugenicists Jewish eugenicists Women councillors in England