Professor Marion Hall, a pioneer for both women in medicine, and the care of women in pregnancy, has died aged 83.
In 1973, she fought off male opposition to become the first woman consultant in obstetrician and gynaecologist in Aberdeen.
She combined her work with prodigious academic output, as well as identifying the existence of familial breast and ovarian cancer long before the link was officially recognised.
Professorship
In earlier life she had lectured at Aberdeen University from where she was awarded her professorship towards the end of her career.
Marion Hall was born in Aberdeen to Christopher Maclennan, a teacher at Aberdeen Grammar School and his wife, Mary, also a secondary school teacher, and grew up with siblings, Colin, Kirstin and Elspeth.
All her schooldays were spent in Blairgowrie after her father had been appointed headteacher at Blairgowrie High School, where Marion edited the school magazine.
Family summer holidays were spent in Orkney, where her mother had roots.
When she left Blairgowrie High School in 1956, Marion went to Aberdeen University where both her parents had studied.
While at university she met her future husband, Peter Hall. They shared a love of hillwalking, foreign travel, jazz and classical music and married in 1959. In 1961, both became founder members of Aberdeen Folk Club.
Family life
The couple went on to have two of a family; Barbara in 1969 and Lindsay in 1971.
In 1969 she became a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and began lecturing at Aberdeen University where she conducted one of the first double-blind trials of the effects of folic acid in pregnancy.
It was while raising her family that Marion become a pioneer for women in medicine. In 1973, with the support of Professor Ian MacGillivray, she became the city’s first woman consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist.
She became chairman of Aberdeen Maternity and Neonatal Databank, and published many papers including on maternal morbidity, antenatal care, and outcome of pregnancy after operative delivery.
Marion lost her husband in 1996 before they had the chance to enjoy retirement together.
In retirement, she returned to study for a degree in French and Spanish at Aberdeen University including six months’ foreign study in both Granada and Burkino Faso.
Her son, Lindsay, said: “In 2009 she became a granny to Alexander, who lives in Madrid, and visited every summer and Christmas.
“She spent her retirement with trips to the hills, beaches and mushroom picking.
My mother loved classical concerts and ballet at His Majesty’s Theatre, and foreign films at the Belmont.
“And later when her health was failing, she loved nothing more than watching television with the cat sat on her lap.
“Our mother was a committed supporter of the National Health Service,
where she spent all her working life.”
You can read the family’s announcement here.
Conversation