19 Facts About Diana Beck

Diana Jean Kinloch Beck was the first British female neurosurgeon.

Diana Beck established the neurosurgery service at the Middlesex Hospital in London.

Diana Beck was born on 29 June 1900, in Hoole, Chester, to James Beck, a tailor, and Margaret Helena Kinloch.

Diana Beck attended The Queen's School before studying medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women, where she won two prizes and a scholarship.

Beck's skill in surgery was recognised by Louisa Aldrich-Blake and after graduating in 1925, Beck was house surgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and then at the Royal Free Hospital.

Diana Beck took time away from her career to care for her mother who was seriously ill.

Diana Beck then worked in general practice in Wrexham before returning to the Royal Free as Surgical Registrar from 1932 to 1936.

Diana Beck chose to specialise in neurosurgery and trained under Hugh Cairns at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, where she acted as a general surgeon providing treatment to injured soldiers during the war.

In 1943, Diana Beck was appointed consultant neurosurgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and the Royal Free, but war damage meant that she was unable to establish her new department.

Diana Beck then went to Bristol as Regional Adviser in Neurosurgery to the emergency medical service for south-west England, working at the Burden Neurological Institute and travelling to consult around the area.

Diana Beck became a consultant neurosurgeon at Middlesex Hospital in 1947, making her the first female consultant at a London teaching hospital that did not admit women students.

Diana Beck set up and ran the neurosurgery service at Middlesex, and published important research on the management of intracerebral haemorrhage.

Diana Beck was the President of the London Association of the Medical Women's Federation for two years.

The claim has been made for the Romanian Sofia Ionescu, although the author notes that Ionescu only finished medical school in 1945, when Diana Beck was already working as a consultant in neurosurgery.

Diana Beck was considered skilled in drawing and needlework, hobbies which complemented the skills necessary for surgery.

Diana Beck suffered from myasthenia gravis and underwent a thymectomy in 1956 to treat a myasthenic crisis.

Diana Beck died at the Middlesex Hospital soon after the procedure from a pulmonary embolism on 3 March 1956.

Diana Beck is commemorated with a plaque in the Fitzrovia Chapel, part of the Middlesex Hospital.

Diana Beck was recipient of an English Heritage blue plaque in 2024, alongside Christina Broom, Irene Barclay and Adelaide Hall.