Ann Dally

Ann Gwendolen Dally (née Mullins, 29 March 1926, in London – 24 March 2007, in Graffham, West Sussex ) was an English author, doctor and—despite no formal training in psychiatry—a psychiatrist (working in private practice). She is known for her 1980s clashes with the General Medical Council regarding the treatment of heroin addicts.

Early life and education Ann Gwendolen Mullins was the eldest child of the weaver and patron of the arts Gwen Mullins and the lawyer Claud Mullins, and was born in a London nursing home at 27 Welbeck Street. Years later, her mother confided that "the moment the baby was placed in her arms, she knew she did not like it."

A keen reader from the age of four, After graduating with a second-class degree in 1946, she worked in Germany and Austria for the War Office, giving history lectures to British troops. after which she practised in general medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology until 1959. The couple divorced in 1969, but continued working together. Some observers of the GMC's decision felt it was the action of a professional establishment out to 'get' a dissident member of its fraternity, though the GMC continued to defend its position. concluded that Dally had been "unjustly hounded" by the GMC.

In her 60s, Dally joined the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine as a historian, writing a book on the history of gynaecological surgery: Women Under the Knife (1991), one of a total of 11 books she produced during her career.

Personal life Ann and Peter Dally had six children. The couple divorced in 1969 (delaying the step to avoid upsetting Ann's father, a co-founder of the Marriage Guidance Council; he was also a co-founder of the Family Planning Association ). On 29 June 1979, Ann Dally married management consultant Philip Wellsted Egerton (b. 1920). After the Devonshire Place house was sold in 1994, they divided their time between a flat in Wimpole Street and Wiblings Farm in Graffham, Sussex. Dally suffered a stroke there, dying shortly after, on 23 March 2007.

Dally was a friend of author Margaret Drabble, who used the Devonshire Place house as a location in her 1987 novel The Radiant Way, about a Harley Street child psychiatrist raising a large family.