Margaret Turner-Warwick

Dame Margaret Elizabeth Turner-Warwick DBE FRACP FACP FRCP FMedSci^[1] (née Harvey Moore; 19 November 1924 – 21 August 2017)^[2] was a British medical doctor and thoracic specialist. She was the first woman president of the Royal College of Physicians (1989–92) and, later, chairman of the Royal Devon and Exeter Health Care NHS Trust (1992–95).

Family

Dame Margaret was born 19 Nov 1924 in the Registration District of St. George, Hanover Square, London; she was the daughter of William Harvey Moore, Q.C., (d. 4 July 1961)^[3] and his wife, Maud Kirkdale Baden-Powell (27 July 1895 – 6 December 1981),^[4][5][6] who were married on 23 March 1920. Dame Margaret was the grand-daughter of Sir George Baden-Powell and Frances Wilson (d. 29 October 1913).^[4]

Dame Margaret married urologist Richard Turner-Warwick (born 1925) in 1950.^[4][7] They had two daughters, Lynne and Gillian.^[8]

Education

Dame Margaret studied medicine at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford^[1], from which she matriculated in 1943)^[1] and, later, at University College Hospital, London.

In her last term before her final exams, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent many months recovering in a sanatorium in Switzerland.^[9] After qualifying, she practiced medicine at UCH and Royal Brompton Hospital.

Career

Dame Margaret decided to specialize in thoracic medicine, in which field it was a time of great change. She helped increase these changes with her colleagues Jack Pepys and Deborah Doniach. They expanded the understanding and measuring of lung function to include the immunology of the lung, and particularly of the fibrosing lung diseases. She also focused on asthma. In her research, she discovered that rates of forceful exhalation required different treatments. Her most notable clinical trial was with inhaled corticosteroids, which have formed a mainstay of modern treatment. ^[8]

Dame Margaret became a senior lecturer at the Institute of Diseases of the Chest. In 1972 she was appointed Professor of Thoracic Medicine at the Cardiothoracic Institute (University of London), later Emeritus on her retirement in 1987. She was also Dean from 1984–87 at the Cardiothoracic Institute (now the National Heart and Lung Institute). She was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 1991–2000.^[10] She was elected an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall in 1989.

Legacy

There is an Annual Margaret Turner-Warwick Respiratory Lecture, started in 2006, as a collaboration between the National Heart and Lung Institute and the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust.^[11]

On 16 April 2015, Turner-Warwick officially opened the Margaret Turner-Warwick Education Centre for the National Heart and Lung Institute at the Royal Brompton Campus.^[12]

Positions

• Member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics from 1991-2000^[13]
• Vice President of TB Alert in 1999
• Chairman of the Royal Devon and Exeter Health Care NHS Trust from 1992–95
• President of the Royal College of Physicians from 1989–92 ^[13]
• President of British Thoracic Society from 1982-83
• Chairman of the Asthma Research Council from 1982-87 ^[13]
• Consultant Physician, Brompton Hospital from 1965
• Professor of Thoracic Medicine at the Cardiothoracic Institute of London University 1972–87 (Dean 1984–87), then Emeritus Professor, Cardiothoracic Institute.^[1]

Honours

• Honorary Fellow, Lady Margaret Hall (1989)
• Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE; 1991)
• Her portrait hangs in the Royal College of Physicians (as a President, and the first female president) of the RCP.^[14]

References

External links

• RCP Presidents
• BBC profile of Dr Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick
• Journal of the American Medical Association excerpt
• Margaret Turner Warwick Education Centre officially opened, imperial.ac.uk, 30 April 2015; accessed 15 June 2016.