Ida and the Eye
from the Autobiography
of Ida Mann

Edited and abridged by Elizabeth Imlay and Dorothy Potter

Mother said. 'Dear, how nice for you to have met all those famous people.'
I answered, 'Meeting them's not enough, Mother. I have to BE ONE OF THEM.'

Professor Dame Ida Mann (1893-1983) blazed a pioneer trail in British medicine, storming male strongholds solely on professional merit. The first woman to be made a Consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital, which she saved from extinction during World War II by forcing a reversal of government decisions, she was the first Professor of Ophthalmology in England and, even more remarkably, the first woman professor at Oxford in any discipline.

As a friend of Lord Nuffield and Hugh Cairns, she organised eye research laboratories at the science-resistant University, was private adviser to Churchill during the war, and after emigrating to Australia became a world expert on trachoma.

Her insatiable desire for knowledge was allied to an ardent energy and profound spiritual perceptions which attracted her to Eastern philosophy. From this rounded personality sprang her warm, entertaining, intimate style. This richly illustrated book is an excerpt from her life story, concentrating on her unparalleled recording of 20th-century medical history.

Related website: British Journal of Ophthalmology