MANCHESTER MEDICAL SOCIETY
(Registered Charity No 222800)
C/0 John Rylands University Library, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PP

The Honourable Dorothy Wedgwood OBE Annual Christmas Lecture for Young People

The Honourable Dorothy Wedgwood OBE overcame severe disability and fierce criticism to deliver birth control to working class women when she opened her first Mothers' Advice Clinic in Wellesley Street, Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1936. The clinic was run in the way recommended by the National Birth Control Association and was much appreciated by the women it served. Information was given to married women only and Dorothy was responsible for the dispensing of medical supplies, giving them free of charge to poor patients, as well as running the clinic and its rota, ordering supplies and finance. She worked at the clinic until she left the district in 1947.

She was born in 1893 to Percy Winser, an industrialist chemist who helped Lord Leverhulme found Port Sunlight. Her mother was involved with welfare work in Liverpool but died after Dorothy's youngest brother was born. Influenced by her mother, Dorothy developed a great interest in social welfare work. Dorothy's three uncles were also Town Clerks in Manchester.

Dorothy attended Beale School from 1904 to 1912 then studied medicine at The University if Manchester. She married Mr F W Haskins in 1917 but he was killed in the First World War, shortly after their marriage. She subsequently married the Honourable Josiah Wedgwood, who became chairman and Managing Director of Josiah Wedgwood & Sons in 1919. A year later, while on a camping trip by the Thames, she developed poliomyelitis, which left her severely disabled but also gave her the impetus for the work she did for the disabled in later life.

In spite of her disability, Dorothy continued her life service to the community, travelling long distance by car or in her wheelchair, usually in the guard's van of trains. She was awarded an OBE in 1969 in recognition of her work with the disabled. Dorothy Wedgwood died in 1974, six years after her husband.

The Manchester Medical Society hosted its inaugural Honourable Dorothy Wedgwood OBE Annual Christmas Lecture for fifth and sixth form students from the the North West on 5th December 2007.

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell FRS, MRC Research Professor and Vice President for Research at The University of Manchester, delivered the lecture which honoured one of Britain's most remarkable women. Professor Rothwell spoke to over 260 15 to 18 year olds on "A stroke of bad luck: a story of of discovery from the lab to patients".

The Manchester Medical Society was joined by the Director of Wedgwood, John Mohin, who at the end of the lecture presented Professor Rothwell with a specially commissioned piece of Wedgwood.

In the foyer of the Stopford Building reception is sited a roll of honour board which names each speaker who gives the  Honourable Dorothy Wedgwood Annual Christmas Lecture.

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