Garrod Marjorie

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Biografie:
Marjorie Garrod (1894-1980)
Marjorie Garrod died on 22 November 1980. She became an Associate Member of the Ladies' Alpine Club in 1926, qualifying the following year with a long list of classic Alpine climbs. She and her husband, Paul, continued climbing and walking in the Alps together and later with their children until 1957. She had joined the Fell and Rock Climbing Club in 1920, paid frequent visits to the Lake District and became especially active in the London section. To both clubs she gave characteristically practical and imaginative service, on the Committee of the LAC
(1930) and as its Treasurer (1931-1935). It was as Secretary and Treasurer of the FRCC that she organized the Appeal which enabled the London section to buy the freehold of the barn at Raw Head as a memorial to G. R. Speaker in 1947. Many will recall the generous hospitality and sumptuous teas with which she and Paul entertained members of both clubs when we arrived at their home, often wet and muddy, after one of our Sunday walks.
Marjorie was born at The Retreat in York where her father, Dr Bedford Pierce was the enlightened Superintendent of that Quaker Hospital, opened in 1796, probably the first to recognize mental affliction as an illness to be treated with understanding care. Marjorie and her younger brother Edmund played happily in the spacious grounds, making friends with the patients, some being merely senile or confused. Her parents took them for mountain holidays in Britain, and later in the Swiss Alps and Germany.. From her father Marjorie acquired her deep love of mountains, her joy in painting, reflected in her delicate water colours of mountain flowers, her lifelong sympathy with mental illness, and loyalty to the Quaker 'Society of Friends'.
It seemed natural that Marjorie, with her father's warm approval, should study Medicine. She qualified at the Royal Free Hospital for Women in 1921 and the following year married Dr Paul Garrod, who had been a fellow pupil at the Quaker co-educational school at Sidcot. He was to become Professor of Bacteriology at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, a world authority and author of the standard book on Antibiotics.
Before marriage Marjorie had spent 3 months working at The Retreat with her father. She became a lifelong Governor and continued to work for the relief of mental illness all her life. In London she worked at the Tavistock clinic, and after her move to Harpenden in 1930 became Governor of the Shenley and Napsbury Mental Hospitals.
I knew her best in her hospitable Harpenden home made lively by her young family, one daughter and 3 sons, 2 now doctors; by her beautiful Siamese cats; and by the constant flow of business visitors and of friends seeking her wise and helpful advice. During the war she was Medical Officer for Evacuees, worked for the Red Cross and provided shelter for friends made temporarily homeless including a family of 5. In every crisis Marjorie remained unperturbed and competent with her gentle touch of humour.
Paul and Marjorie celebrated their Golden Wedding in their new home at Wokingham, adjacent to that of their eldest son David. Surrounded by their children and grandchildren it seemed an affirmation of the value of Family Life. For them and for their first great granddaughter Marjorie wrote a fascinating Family History going back some 200 years, recording the career of her distinguished father and of his and her travels and adventures. After Paul's death her health declined and she survived little more than a year. Marjorie leaves an inspiring memory of a great woman, warm and kind, fulfilled in her professional and private lives, above all in her greatest joy and delight, her family.
Mary D. Glynne
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 87, 1982, Seite 262-263


Geboren am:
1894
Gestorben am:
22.11.1980