Name: Margaret Innes

Qualifications:
MB ChB, Aberdeen, 1936
DA, RCP&S, 1939

Date of Birth: 13 December 1914
Date of Death: 5 August 2003

After graduating in medicine from the University of Aberdeen in 1936, Margaret Innes went first to Dublin where she focused on obstetrics, and then to Glasgow, where she worked in accident and emergency. She then decided to train in anaesthetics and gained her Diploma of Anaesthetics in London in 1939, and working at St James Hospital in Balham.

In 1942 she moved back to Aberdeen, with her surgeon husband and, in 1944, had a bout of poliomyelitis which, fortunately, left her with no lasting effects.

In around 1947, the family moved to Auckland, New Zealand, with Barclay Innes going in advance to take up a position as surgical registrar at Auckland Hospital. When Margaret Innes applied for a position as an anaesthetic registrar, it was rejected on the grounds it would be inappropriate to have a husband and wife working on staff together. The decision was overturned later that year, and Innes worked in the eye and ENT theatres, at the National Women’s Hospital and, later, was involved with the early cardiothoracic work at Green Lane.

Innes continued to practice as an anaesthetist until 1979. She then took up work with the Blood Service until her retirement in the 1980s.

SOURCES
Obituary, ANZCA Bulletin, March 2004; Evening Star (newspaper); Form of Proposal for Nomination for Faculty of Anaesthetists, 1955.

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