Jean Medawar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Jean Shinglewood Taylor 7 February 1913 London, England |
| Died | 3 May 2005 (aged 92) London, England |
| Education | Somerville College, Oxford (BSc) |
| Genre | Scientific literature Biography |
| Literary movement | Family planning |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Relatives | Alex Garland (grandson) |
Jean Shinglewood Medawar, Lady Medawar (née Taylor; 7 February 1913 – 3 May 2005)[1] was a British author and a former chairman of the Family Planning Association, and wife of the British Nobel laureate Sir Peter Brian Medawar.[2]
Medawar was born in London, England, the daughter of Katherine Leslie (née Paton) and Charles Henry Shinglewood Taylor. Her father was a physician working in Cambridge. Her mother was an American from St Louis, Missouri.[3]
She attended Benenden School in Kent and she won a scholarship to study zoology. She joined Somerville College, Oxford, and earned her BSc in zoology in 1935. She continued to work on the origin and development of lymphocytes under Howard Florey (who later won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945) until her marriage in 1937. In 1954, she met Margaret Pyke, Chair of the Family Planning Association, and joined the organisation. She became a member of its executive in 1960.[4] In 1959 she became Joint Editor of the journal Family Planning (continued as Family Planning Today) alongside David Pyke, Pyke's son, and remained till 1979.[5] She also worked with the Citizens' Advice Bureau, the National Marriage Guidance Council and also with young offenders at HM Prison Holloway at Hampstead. She was appointed chairman of the FPA in 1966, owing to the death of Margaret Pyke, and held the post till 1970. She co-founded the Margaret Pyke Centre for Study and Training in Family Planning and the Margaret Pyke Memorial Trust in 1968,[1] becoming its Director in 1976 until her death.[5]
- ^ a b "Obituaries: Lady Medawar". The Telegraph. 13 May 2005. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
- ^ Peacock, Scot (2001). Contemporary Authors New Revision Series. Gale / Cengage Learning. pp. 318. ISBN 0787646091.
- ^ Medawar, Peter (1986). Memoir of a Thinking Radish : An Autobiography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 180–195. ISBN 0-19-217737-0.
- ^ Richmond, C. (2005). "Lady Jean Medawar". BMJ. 330 (7504): 1392. doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7504.1392. PMC 558304.
- ^ a b "Jean Medawar: Writer and family-planning campaigner". Independent. 12 May 2005. Retrieved 20 April 2016.