Helen Carruthers Mackenzie

Dame Helen Carruthers Mackenzie DBE (13 April, 1859 – 25 September, 1945) was a Scottish suffragist, pioneering social work educator and public health campaigner.

Dame

Helen Carruthers Mackenzie
DBE
Born
Helen Carruthers Spense

13 April, 1859
Mortlach, Banffshire, Scotland
Died25 September, 1945
Edinburgh, Scotland
NationalityBritish
Other namesDame Helen Carruthers Mackenzie; Lady Helen Carruthers Mackenzie
Known forEducation, public health and women's campaigns and issues
Spouse(s)Sir William Leslie Mackenzie

Early Life

Born Helen Carruthers Spence in Mortlach, Banffshire, the daughter of William Spence, merchant tailor and provost of Dufftown, and his wife, Mary McDonell. She was educated at the local village school, where she became a pupil teacher. She trained to be a teacher at the Church of Scotland Training College in Aberdeen and then she taught around Aberdeen until she married Dr (later Sir) William Leslie Mackenzie in 1892.[1]

Social and Political work

Shortly after their marriage the couple moved to Edinburgh, where Dr Mackenzie was Chief Medical Officer for Leith. Helen became involved in the social and political life of the city, acting as the Honorary Secretary of the Edinburgh and District branch of the Women's Emancipation Union in 1895, and was part of the Suffrage movement in Edinburgh alongside Elsie Inglis, Flora Stevenson, Louisa Stevenson, Mary Burton and Jessie Methven.[2] She went on to be one of the founders of the Edinburgh Women Citizens' Association in 1918, alongside Mona Chalmers Watson.[3]

Throughout her life showed a strong commitments to education, public health and women's campaigns and issues. In 1901 Dr Mackenzie was appointed the Scottish Local Government Board’s first medical inspector.[1] He and Helen collaborated on a 1903 Royal Commission for Scotland report on the health of school children in Edinburgh. Helen Mackenzie organised the studies and wrote the reports, and was present while her husband examined the children. The report demonstrated conclusively that there was inverse relationship between affluence and children's health. They successfully argued that teachers should be trained in health issues and many of their recommendations were adopted into the 1908 Education (Scotland) Act.[4]

Lady Leslie Mackenzie was one of the founding committee members on the University of Edinburgh's School of Social Study and Training, where she taught a course on Local Government from 1918 until at least 1932.[5] In addition, she had a long involvement with the Edinburgh College of Domestic Science (which later was absorbed into the Queen Margaret University), chairing it from 1943 - 1945. She served as President of the National Association of Health Visitors, Women Sanitary Inspectors and School Nurses as well as being a Member of the Departmental Committee for the review of public health services in Scotland. She continued to be active in social and political work up until her death in Edinburgh in 1945.[6]

Honours

Her husband was knighted in 1919, after which she was known as Lady Leslie Mackenzie. She was honoured in her own right when she was made a Dame in 1933,[7] for her work with women and children. In 1937 the University of Edinburgh made her a doctor of letters.[4]

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References
  1. "Mackenzie [née Spence], Dame Helen Carruthers (1859–1945), educationist and public health campaigner | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001 (inactive 2020-01-22). Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. "Social Work Centenary: People: Lady Leslie MacKenzie". www.socialwork.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-14.
  3. Innes, Sue (2004-12-01). "Constructing women's citizenship in the interwar period: the Edinburgh women citizens' association". Women's History Review. 13 (4): 621–647. doi:10.1080/09612020400200414. ISSN 0961-2025.
  4. The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004. Ewan, Elizabeth., Innes, Sue., Reynolds, Sian. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2006. ISBN 9780748626601. OCLC 367680960.CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. "Social Work Centenary: Learning: Academic Learning". www.socialwork.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-14.
  6. Tom Begg, ‘Mackenzie , Dame Helen Carruthers (1859–1945)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 28 Dec 2016
  7. Gazette, 1933
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