Cover image for
Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E000123 - Rue, Dame Elsie Rosemary (1928 - 2004)
Title:
Rue, Dame Elsie Rosemary (1928 - 2004)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E000123
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2005-10-19

2012-03-09
Description:
Obituary for Rue, Dame Elsie Rosemary (1928 - 2004), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Rue, Dame Elsie Rosemary
Date of Birth:
14 June 1928
Place of Birth:
Essex, UK
Date of Death:
24 December 2004
Titles/Qualifications:
DBE 1989

CBE 1977

Hon FRCS 1993

MB BS London 1951

DCH 1962

Hon MA Oxford 1988

MRCP 1972

MRCPsych 1975

FRCP 1977

FRCPsych 1980

FRCGP ad eundem 1982

Hon FRCPsych 1990
Details:
As regional medical officer for Oxford Regional Health Authority Rosemary Rue pioneered part-time specialist medical training for women doctors. She was born in Essex on 14 June 1928, the daughter of Harry and Daisy Laurence. The family moved to London when she was five, and during the Blitz she was sent for safety to stay with relatives in Devon, where she contracted tuberculosis and peritonitis, an experience which determined her to be a doctor. She was educated at Sydenham High School and entered the all-women Royal Free Hospital. In 1950 she married Roger Rue, an instructor in the RAF and was told by the dean that she could not stay on at the medical school if she were married. She was however accepted at Oxford, but took the examinations of London University. Her first job was at a long-stay hospital on the outskirts of Oxford, but was sacked when it was revealed that she was married and had a newborn son. She moved into general practice in 1952, and there contracted poliomyelitis from a patient in 1954, the last person in Oxford to catch the illness. This left her with one useless leg, which made it impossible to carry a medical bag. For a time she taught in a girls' school. By 1955 she and her husband had separated and she went to live in Hertfordshire with her parents, whose GP needed a partner. This was a success, and she combined the practice with being medical officer to the RAF, Bovingdon. In 1960 she became assistant county medical officer for Hertfordshire and five years later assistant senior medical officer for the Oxford region, proceeding to become regional medical officer in 1973 and regional general manager in 1984. She oversaw the building of new hospitals in Swindon, Reading and Milton Keynes, designing basic modules that could be incorporated into every hospital, so obviating architects' fees. Her most important contribution however was to set up a part-time training scheme for women doctors who wanted to become specialists. She discovered 150 women doctors in the Oxford region who were insufficiently employed. She sought them out, interviewed them and found jobs for 50 within a few months, and went on to set up a scheme for training part-time married women. This was a great success and spread from Oxford all over the country, and it was with Rosemary's active help that our College set up the Women in Surgical Training scheme. In 1972 she became one of the founders of the Faculty of Community Health (now the Faculty of Public Health). She was a founding fellow of Green College, Oxford, a President of the BMA and was awarded the Jenner medal of the Royal Society of Health. Small, birdlike, with an intense interest in everything and everybody, she had great charm as well as a formidable intellect. She died of bowel cancer on 24 December 2004, leaving two sons.
Sources:
*BMJ* 2005 330 199, with portrait

*The Times* 28 January 2005, with portrait

*Oxford Medical School Gazette* 2005 43, with portrait
Rights:
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Collection:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format:
Obituary
Format:
Asset
Asset Path:
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
Media Type:
Unknown