Early years and medical qualification
Mary Eva Hastings Morris was born in 1873 in Dolgellau in Wales. Her father was a Royal Navy chaplain, and she grew up in Malta when he was serving on HMS Victoria, the Navy’s flagship, before she returned to Wales after his tragic death, to study medicine at the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth. She completed her training at the Royal Free Hospital Society of Medicine for Women, graduating in 1896.
Dr Morris worked at the Great Ormond St Children’s Hospital, then as a surgeon at North Devon Infirmary at Barnstaple before she took up an outpatient’s role at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Women. She moved to Bath in 1908 and became the first woman doctor in the city. The attitudes faced by women doctors were reflected by a question being raised by an Alderman in her interview in Bath – as to whether she would be examining both boys and girls? (Source – Bath Chronicle and Herald)
Practising medicine in Bath
The Schools Medical Service in England was first launched in January 1908 the Liberal government formed in 1906 initiated a range of welfare reforms. In 1907 a new law brought about free medical inspection in schools, with a view to checking on the health and physical condition of all schoolchildren (Source – Hirst, 1989).
Some public health campaigners were hopeful that through the evidence built up at school medical inspections, a case could be made for treatments to be given in schools, benefiting the poorest children. It was intended that inspection would include checks on a child’s height and weight, whether there was infestation by nits or ringworm, if there were problems with tonsils and adenoids, and observation of the state of their teeth.
Dr Mary Morris was appointed as the first Bath Schools Medical Inspector. Nationally, it would be less likely for female doctors to be appointed to the new SMO roles, so her appointment was notable. The role of Schools Medical Inspector was a pressured role that could be challenging if issues were to be addressed. Dr Morris examined 2500 school children in her first four months in the role. At the end of the first year she was commended by the Education Committee for the assiduity with which she carried out her duties(Source – Bath Chronicle).By 1909 Dr Mary Morris was in contention with other medical specialists when she advocated that the cause of many children’s squint and deteriorating eyesight at the Christ Church School was due to the very poor level of light in the classrooms, rather than any inherent problem with individual children’s sight (Source – Bath Chronicle and Herald).
The negative effects of poverty on school children’s health in the city of Bath were exposed in an inspection report produced in 1911. It highlighted that where treatment was recommended for children, it often wasn’t followed up because parents could not afford the treatment fees. Dr Morris considered that medical inspection in numerous cases is thus rendered useless. Arising from the report, a proposal was developed for small periodical payments to be made by parents to a scheme that would ensure that any treatment required by their children could be funded.
The report on the Medical Inspection of School Children for 1913 was particularly exhaustive – its contents reflected serious concerns about the physical condition of the city’s children. In the elementary schools, 50% of children were malnourished. Tonsillitis, swollen glands, symptoms of tuberculosis and other signs of infectious disease were common. As a comparison, in 1909 only 25% of children had received treatment for identified conditions – this had risen to 86% in 1913. Care of eyesight and tooth care was well established, with over 250 children being provided with spectacles during the year. (Source – Bath Chronicle and Herald). The reports had influenced the numbers of children receiving necessary treatment. Dr Morris gave evidence in many cases in relation to children’s ill treatment through abuse or neglect.
Dr Morris became the Commandant of the Nursing Division of the Bath St John Ambulance Service and went on to train young people and their families in first aid and hygiene.
Dr Morris resigned from her post as a Medical Inspector of Schools in 1917. She took up a post as a medical practitioner with the Bath War Hospital during the First World War, then became a physician attached to one of the National Insurance doctors ‘panels. She made it known that she was willing to work with patients without requesting the ‘panel fee’ for which a proportion of patients would be liable. (Source – Bath Chronicle and Herald). Her commitment to standards in medical care is shown by her chairing the Bath branch of the National Union of Trained Nurses in 1914 (Source – The British Journal of Nursing).
Suffragist activity
In common with many other professional women, Dr Mary Morris was interested in major social and political issues outside of her work. She attended a meeting in Bath in 1908 involving Lillias Ashworth Hallet, a militant suffragette who had become frustrated with the Liberal Party after lobbying peacefully for 40 years, and Millicent Fawcett, who was the leader of the moderate suffragette organisation, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Despite the significant differences in policy between the two organisations, there was much interaction between them in local settings. It is likely that Mary Morris knew Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the notable founder of the London School of Medicine for Women, who was the sister of Millicent Garrett Fawcett (Source – Suffragette Stories).
Mary Morris as a suffragist, addressed many meetings, including an ‘At Home’ meeting held in 1910 at St Mary’s Church House on Grove St. The aim of this meeting was to provide a setting where suffrage supporters could feel less daunted than they might feel at a much larger, formal suffrage meeting. Her address highlighted national issues where she felt that women’s voice and contribution was crucial. In the following year Dr Morris was involved at a similar but large meeting held at the Batheaston Villa and she was a regular participant at moderate suffrage meetings in Bath for several years. (Source – Bath Chronicle and Gazette).
The progressive Blathwayt family who supported votes for women lived at Eagle House in Batheaston. Their home became a focus and a respite for activist women including some who had been imprisoned. The Blaythwayts built a summer house and then initiated an arboretum in their grounds. Mary Blathwayt on I October 1909 said in her diary ‘This afternoon I went round [Bath] for Annie and called on 33 doctors to try and see if they would sign a petition to Mr Asquith to ask him not to allow Suffragettes to be fed in prison by force. But no one would sign, 22 doctors were out, 3 were engaged, 4 were not in favour of Women’s Suffrage, and the other 4 including Dr Mary Morris would not sign’.(Source – Wilmott Dobbie, 1979).
Each suffragette or suffragist visiting the house was invited to plant a tree. The photograph shows that Mary Morris was present when Millicent Garrett Fawcett planted her tree in the arboretum in 1910. The author Cynthia Hammond studied the photograph and noted in her book published in 2012 that:
The usual factors are in play; the women are carefully and conservatively dressed, with suffrage jewellery or fresh flowers pinned to their hats or clothes.
Mary Morris herself planted an ilex aquifolium laurifolia – a tall, glossy leaved type of holly, at the arboretum on 29th February 1911.
She was both a suffragist and an active supporter of the Conservative Party. Dr Morris was active in the Bath branch of the Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association. That combination of social and political affiliations was relatively unusual. Mary Morris continued as a very active conservative after the First World War, speaking at meetings in support of the MP Captain Foxcroft and at meetings of the Conservative women’s associations. She was also a member of the Bath Women’s Citizens’ Association.
Dr Morris’s death and tributes
Mary Morris died in July 1925 at her home in Gay St, Bath after suffering from cancer for a protracted period. She was 52 years old. Her funeral service at the Bath Abbey was attended by many ex-patients, large numbers of medical and nursing professional staff, in addition to family and friends (Bath Chronicle and Herald). Her coffin was taken by train to her hometown of Aberystwyth for interment. The tribute in the local Bath newspaper concluded:
Dr Mary Morris was one of the best-known medical practitioners in Bath, and a particularly charming personality. She had practised in Bath for nearly 20 years and took part in manty of the social and political movements of the city. She was the first Schools Medical Officer in Bath and an active Conservative, being an accomplished platform speaker.
Dr Mary Morris paved the way for other female doctors to be appointed, facing up to prejudicial attitudes and gaining respect among her patients and colleagues. Her advocacy for reforms to improve the health of Bath’s schoolchildren during a period characterised by poverty and neglect for at least half of the school population is especially noteworthy.
References
British Journal of Nursing (1914).
Report of the Bath Branch of the
National Union of Trained Nurses
Hammond C. (2012). Architects, Angels, Activists and the City of Bath, 1765 – 1965
Hirst J.D. (1989). The Growth of Treatment Through the School Medical Service, 1908 – 1918, Medical History 1989, 33: pp 318-342
Suffragette Stories suffragettestories.omeka.net
B.M.Wilmott Dobbie (1979), A Nest of Suffragettes in Somerset, Batheaston Society p. 36
With thanks to Professor June Hannam for her contributions.
Article by Dr Linda Watts