Helen Mair

Mair was born in Rotherham, England on 18 April 1924 to James Alexander Mair, a director of education, and his wife Helen Sumner Mair, a headmistress and educational adviser to the Girl Guides. She attended Dr Williams' School in Dolgellau, Wales and studied medicine at the University of Manchester qualifying in 1948.[1]

After graduation she worked in positions at Ancoats Hospital, Manchester and the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. She was an assistant health officer for Manchester City Council from 1950-1956, and later Deputy Medical Officer of Health for Dagenham. From 1961 to 1963 she was Deputy Medical Officer of Health for Gillingham, going on to become Medical Officer.[1]

From 1974 to 1982 she was a district community physician for the Medway Health District in Kent, going on to become District Medical Officer.[1]

She wrote and contributed to several reports on children's day nurseries, children with Down syndrome, and mental health services including The mental health service after unification: mental health in a unified National Health Service – report of the Tripartite Committee (London, Tripartite Committee, 1972), ) and Handbook of psychiatric rehabilitation practice (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1981).[1][2]

In 1959 she married Derek Senior, a freelance writer and journalist, who was a member of the Royal Commission on Local Government in England.[3] Together they had a daughter, Jill.[1]

She died at her home in Benderloch, Scotland, on 14 March 2016, after a short illness.[4]

In 1982 Mair received an OBE in the New Year Honours.[5] She was a Fellow of the Faculty of Community Health, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Physicians.