On June 22nd Dr Eva celebrated her 100th birthday with her family in her garden in Quorn. She was born in Barrow in 1922 and lived in Beveridge Street with her parents and sister. Her father was Dr Andrew Gray who established the first medical practice in Barrow, her mother Louise Gray was French. She attended Loughborough Girls High School and trained as a doctor at Aberdeen University during the Second World War. She met her husband James at university and they married when they both qualified; he was sent to Egypt almost immediately to work as a doctor with the army. The Mount was their home for many years, with their children Jill and Alistair.
Why did you choose to study medicine?
I never wanted to do anything else; I spent a lot of time with my father and started to read medical books when I was about eight.
Why did you choose Aberdeen University?
It’s a long way from Barrow and not an easy journey during the war.
My father studied there and the medical school had an excellent reputation.
Did you ever feel discriminated against as a woman in what was largely a man’s world?
No, I didn’t ever feel I was treated differently from the men. I didn’t do the night time visits my husband did, but I always got up with him. In those days patients came and knocked on the door if they needed help in the night.
You started to practice medicine before the NHS was established, how did people pay for their medical care, especially those on very low, or no, income?
Patients could join a Doctor’s Club, they paid, I think, three old pence a week. Otherwise, they got a bill for their care. Medicines were prepared and dispensed at the surgery.
What did you enjoy the most about General Practice?
Everything, I loved the job and never regretted my choice of career. I liked meeting people and doing what I could to help them. I particularly liked doing home visits as it helped to get to know my patients better. If we hadn’t seen any of our elderly patients for a while, we called on them to make sure they were all right.
What did you not enjoy?
Nothing.
What sparked your interest in, and then your long practice of, dermatology?
When I first qualified, I wanted to stay in Aberdeen and was offered a job working in the venereal disease clinic. Dermatology was not a well-established aspect of medicine at that time. I eventually came back to Barrow to help my father in the practice. It was war time and many younger doctors had been called up for war service. My father had served in the First War and, as his commitment to war service in the Second War, did not take a day off.
Because of my experience in Aberdeen, I was asked to join the dermatology department at the Royal; this was in addition to my commitment to the Barrow practice. I ‘retired’ when I was 70 but was asked to go back to help out, which I did for several years.
Kathryn Timmons