Diana Jean Kinloch Beck (29 June 1900 or 1902 – 3 March 1956) was the first British female neurosurgeon. She established the neurosurgery service at the Middlesex Hospital in London. In 1952 she gained a public profile for performing life-saving surgery on A. A. Milne.
In 1943, Beck was appointed consultant neurosurgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and the Royal Free, but war damage meant that she was unable to establish her new department. In 1944, she was sent to Chase Farm Hospital, where she took charge of air-raid casualties with head injuries and notably performed a lengthy operation that saved a nurse whose brain was protruding from her skull and was expected to die.[5] Beck then went to Bristol as Regional Adviser in Neurosurgery to the emergency medical service for south-west England, working at the Burden Neurological Institute and travelling to consult around the area.[5]
Beck became a consultant neurosurgeon at Middlesex Hospital in 1947, making her the first female consultant at a London teaching hospital that did not admit women students.[1] At Middlesex, she was the first woman and the first neurosurgeon on staff,[6] as well as being the only consultant neurosurgeon in western Europe and North America at the time.[7] Beck set up and ran the neurosurgery service at Middlesex, and published important research on the management of intracerebral haemorrhage.[6]
In 1952 Beck received attention in the press for performing lifesaving surgery on A. A. Milne, the author of Winnie-the-Pooh, two months after he suffered a brain haemorrhage.[6]The Times praised her "remarkable piece of surgery".[6] According to his son Christopher, after the stroke and surgery he remained "partly paralyzed" with a "distinct change in character", though he survived a further three years.[8]
A 2008 profile in Neurosurgery credits Beck as the world's first female neurosurgeon. The claim has also been made for the Romanian Sofia Ionescu, although the author notes that Ionescu only finished medical school in 1945, when Beck was already working as a consultant in neurosurgery.[6]
Personal life
Beck was considered skilled in drawing and needlework, hobbies which complemented the skills necessary for surgery.[5]
^Beck's date of birth as per the Civil Registration of Births Index for England and Wales is 1900. This is reflected in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.[1] Her date of birth on the plaque in the Fitzrovia Chapel was listed as 1902[2] and this date was used in the initial announcement of her blue plaque but the plaque date was then corrected to 1900.[4]
