Margery Blackie

Blue plaque, 18 Thurloe Street, South Kensington, London

Margery Grace Blackie CVO (4 February 1898 – 24 August 1981) was a British doctor who later changed to homeopathy and became homeopath to Queen Elizabeth II.

Early life

Margery Grace Blackie was born at Redbourn, Hertfordshire, on 4 February 1898, the youngest of ten children of Robert Blackie (c.1852–1936), who was independently wealthy, and his wife, Elizabeth (d. 1941), daughter of Rowland Rees, the civil engineer and Mayor of Brighton. Her uncle, by marriage, was James Compton-Burnett, a noted Homeopathic Doctor. His daughter, the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett was a first cousin.[1] In 1911 the family moved to London, and she was educated at the Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls in Acton.[1]

She studied medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women, and qualified as a doctor in 1923. In 1924, she joined the staff at the London Homeopathic Hospital.[2] In 1928, she received her MD from the University of London, where she was the only woman candidate.[3]

Career

In 1926, encouraged by her closest friend, Dr Helena Banks, she set up her own practice at Drayton Gardens, London, by reopening a homeopathic dispensary that had been closed for 12 years.

In 1929, together with Helena Banks, she moved to a practice in a large six-storey house at 18 Thurloe Square, South Kensington, London, where she was to remain until 1980, a year before her death.[3][4] They were both ardent Christians, and for thirty years Banks was her "partner and intimate friend".[3]

At the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, Blackie was as assistant physician in the Children's Department from 1929 to 1937, an assistant physician from 1927 to 1957, and senior consultant physician from 1957 to 1966.[5]

Blackie was the first homeopath to treat Queen Elizabeth II, from 1968 onwards.[5][6] Other patients included Lady Julia Namier.[7]

In 1978, it was reported that her medical bag for house calls at Buckingham Palace included "arsenic, strychnine, wormwood, wolfsbane, death cap mushroom, and the venom of the Gila monster, rattlesnake and hooded cobra",[8] although in practice the principles of homeopathy suggest that her preparations would not have actually contained any of the substances they were named for.[9]

Later life

The keep, Hedingham Castle

In the last year of her life, from 1980 to 1981, she lived at Hedingham Castle with the owner, her close friend and companion, Miss Musette Frances Jacqueline Natalie Majendie CBE (1903–1981), the granddaughter of Lewis Majendie MP.[10][11] On 24 August 1981, she died peacefully from a stroke, and was buried on 29 August at Castle Hedingham.[1]

Personal life

Since 1945, she shared her London home with her close friend and secretary, Musette Majendie. They spent weekends at Hedingham Castle, the 100-acre estate which had been home to Majendie's family since 1720.[8]

Publications

Honours

In 1979, she was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, for her services to the royal family.[1]

Legacy

The Blackie Foundation Trust is a charity that gives research grants and financial help to "medically qualified health care professionals".[12] It was founded by Blackie in 1971, when she was homeopathic physician to the Queen.[13]

In 1986, Constance Babington Smith published Champion of Homeopathy: the Life of Margery Blackie.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Leary, Bernard (2010) [2004]. "Blackie, Margery Grace". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/56730. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ↑ "Margery Grace Blackie 1898 – 1981". Sue Young Histories. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Schuett, Katja (October 2012). "Healing as Vocation – The life of Margery Blackie, MD (1898–1981)". Hpathy. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "Blackie's home and practice on Thurloe Square". RBKC. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Margery Grace Blackie (1898–1981), Physician to Queen Elizabeth II". NPG. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  6. ↑ Seaton, Mark (24 February 2004). "By royal appointment". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  7. ↑ Constance Babington Smith; Iulia De Beausobre (1983). Iulia de Beausobre: A Russian Christian in the West. Darton, Longman and Todd. ISBN 978-0-232-51576-3.
  8. 1 2 Jones, Jerene (13 November 1978). "Arsenic, Wormwood, Snake Venom: Dr. Margery Blackie Brings Such Homeopathic Cures to the Palace". People. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  9. ↑ "Dynamization and Dilution", Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Creighton University Department of Pharmacology, archived from the original on 2002-08-26, retrieved 2009-03-24
  10. ↑ "Estate and Family records: Majendie family of Castle Hedingham". Seax - Essex Archives Online. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  11. ↑ U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News Publishing Corporation. 1983.
  12. ↑ "Home". Blackie. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  13. ↑ "About Us". Blackie. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
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