Helen Mary Wilson (physician)

Helen Mary Wilson
Born1 December 1864
Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England
Died29 December 1951
Finchley, London, England
Parent(s)Henry Wilson
Charlotte Cowan Wilson

Dr. Helen Mary Wilson (1 December 1864 – 29 December 1951) was a physician and social purity campaigner.[1]

Wilson was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire[2] and moved to Sheffield early in her childhood.[1] She studied medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women.[3]

In 1892 Wilson was House surgeon at the London Temperance Hospital.[2] She worked in private practice in Sheffield from 1893[2] until 1906, when she retired to become actively involved in the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene,[4] previously known as the Ladies' National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. She took a humane approach to women in and in danger of falling into prostitution, rather than punitive one, and argued against double standards in the law on prostitution.[1][5] From 1916 to 1919 she was Chair of the Women's Training Colony in Newbury, Berkshire,[6] a work camp that aimed to provide responsibility, independence and occupation.[5]

Wilson had an interest in women's suffrage, serving as honorary secretary of the Sheffield Women's Suffrage Society in 1909–1910 and also as president.[1] In 1920 she was appointed magistrate in Sheffield,[7] the first woman to hold the role in Sheffield.[1] Wilson died in 1951, in London.[8]

Archives

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Archival materials relating to Wilson are held at The Women's Library at the London School of Economics, including a scrapbook of Dr Wilson's containing ephemera relating to the suffrage campaigns in Sheffield and the Sheffield Women's Suffrage Society.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Wilson, Helen Mary (1864–1951), social purity campaigner and physician | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57832. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b c "Helen Mary Wilson - Person - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  3. ^ "Medical News". The Lancet. 136 (3508): 1136–1138. 1890. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(01)85874-8.
  4. ^ Moruzi, Kristine (2016). Constructing Girlhood through the Periodical Press, 1850–1915. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781317161493.
  5. ^ a b Field, John (2013). "Alternative living in the English countryside". Working men's bodies. Manchester University Press. pp. 77–94. doi:10.7228/manchester/9780719087684.003.0005. ISBN 9780719087684.
  6. ^ Ballinger, Anette (2016). Gender, Truth and State Power: Capitalising on Punishment. Routledge. ISBN 9781317169840.
  7. ^ Group, British Medical Journal Publishing (24 July 1920). "Medical news". Br Med J. 2 (3108): 144. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.3108.144-b. ISSN 0007-1447. PMC 2337929. {{cite journal}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  8. ^ "Births, Marriages, and Deaths". The Lancet. 259 (6698): 109. 1952. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(52)91842-4.
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