Short abstract
First woman doctor to reach the rank of RAF air commodore
In a world dominated by men, Elspeth McKechnie was the first woman doctor to reach air rank in the Royal Air Force when she was promoted to air commodore in 1972 and appointed to run the service's Central Medical Establishment in London. It was the culmination of a distinguished medical career in the RAF, punctuated only by 18 months in the fledgling NHS in 1948-9.
Figure 1.
During her service career she was in command of RAF Hospital Cosford, senior medical officer at RAF Halton, and registrar at several bases, including RAF Hospital Werberg (in the former West Germany), the Central Medical Establishment, and RAF Hospital Ely. At Ely she had to deal with members of the army, the American air force, and the local civilian population, in addition to RAF personnel. In 1959 she was charged with closing RAF Weeton, near Blackpool, and soon afterwards she wielded the axe at RAF Wilmslow.
Over the years McKechnie pursued several different medical interests, including the welfare of young women joining the Women's Royal Air Force, the high prevalence of drink driving among servicemen in West Germany, and malformation of women's feet.
The latter proved of particular note in 1948; while preparing medical records for more than 1000 servicewomen facing demobilisation, she found only 10 pairs of perfect feet. Twenty years later she was shocked to find the same result while working at the WRAF Recruit Centre. The reason given for the former was the legacy of 1930s poverty; the latter was attributed to fashion.
During the severe winter of 1947 she found herself dealing with hundreds of upper respiratory tract infections. Ten years later, while serving in Germany, she was surrounded by “Asian” flu. As she later recalled: “We kept our staff on their feet in some miraculous way, and no wards were shut.”
Elspeth Mavor McKechnie was the only child of Henry Mavor McKechnie, a Scot who gave many years' service as secretary to the Manchester University Press. She was educated at Writhlington Girls' School in Manchester, where at the age of 11 she encountered her first patient, a younger girl whom she had tripped up during a game of netball. She was ordered off court to patch up the injured child and found a first aid box containing iodine. The casualty took one look at it and declared that she was not having that on her knee and would scream if McKechnie tried. “You try,” McKechnie retorted, “and I'll gag you and bind your mouth, lock the door, and throw the key away.” The words had the desired effect.
Later in her school career, while doing corridor duty and yelling at the juniors to walk, not run, she felt the hand of her head-mistress on her shoulder. “With a voice like that you would make a marvellous sergeant major in the army,” scolded the older woman.
War soon broke out while McKechnie was studying at the University of Manchester Medical School. Inspired by the heroes of the Battle of Britain she resolved to join the RAF, but first she had to complete her studies.
She resisted conscription into the Royal Army Medical Corps—her mother was in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, and McKechnie believed that one khaki in the family was enough. Initially she failed her pathology and bacteriology exams, but eventually she successfully sat the conjoint medical examination.
She became a house surgeon at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and followed that with two other house jobs before reporting to the Medical Training Establishment, Sidmouth, in June 1944. Her first posting was to 16 Maintenance Unit, Stafford, where some 5000 RAF personnel were based. As a woman she found herself made distinctly unwelcome, but with so many service people to look after she was kept extremely busy.
Her commission ended in 1948, and with no peacetime prospects for women in the RAF, she took locum work in the NHS. But that was to prove an unhappy move. “I wasn't very impressed by what I saw of the new service,” she later recorded. Rescue was at hand when friends at the RAF Medical Directorate suggested she apply to return to the service. To her delight she was accepted, and in November 1950 was posted to RAF Hospital Ely as registrar.
Promotions and postings followed, until she was made air commodore. She retired in 1976 and was appointed CBE the following year. Her later years were active ones in Manchester, where she supported several voluntary organisations.
Air Commodore Elspeth Mavor McKechnie, former head of the RAF Central Medical Establishment (b Manchester 1917; q Manchester 1942; CBE), d 29 August 2003.