Kathleen Rutherford

Kathleen Eleanor Hyde Rutherford (19 June 1896 – 9 November 1975) was a Scottish-born medical practitioner, philanthropist and humanitarian aid worker. She was for many years a general practitioner (GP) in Harrogate, West Yorkshire, England. She was known locally as Doctor Kathleen and Doctor Kindly Heart.

Rutherford trained as a physician in Glasgow and Leeds, gained experience as a senior house surgeon in the North Lonsdale Hospital in Barrow-in-Furness, and settled as a GP in her family's practice in Harrogate. From that base, she gave a third of her earnings to charity, and when she received a sizeable legacy, she gave much of it away to deserving causes, her priority always being the needs of women and children. With the remainder of the legacy, she funded her own travel for purposes of humanitarian aid abroad and the promotion of peace campaigns.

Rutherford established the Harrogate branch of Lepra, a leprosy charity. She was president of the Yorkshire Association of Medical Women and was the founder president of the Soroptimist Club of Harrogate. Towards the end of her life she was honoured as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for "services to medical work in underdeveloped countries" and was made an honorary Freeman of the Borough of Harrogate. Her private life went unnoticed by some; she married in 1929, but some newspapers described her as a spinster in her later years.

Background Family of physicians Rutherford was born into a family of doctors. Her uncle was Dr John James Rutherford of Shipley, West Yorkshire. Her cousin, Percy Rutherford of Shipley, son of John James Rutherford, was also a doctor of medicine. He received two honours degrees from the University of Glasgow, and initially practised in the city. He then moved to England in 1903, and assisted his brother John James Rutherford at his surgery in Shipley, subsequently running his own practice in Harrogate, where he was known as a spa specialist. Her degree was received from Webster University, in Georgia and Delaware. Dr Raphael Perlee James Rutherford, Almer Jan Robert Rutherford, and surgeon Eric Hugo Thomas Rutherford, F.R.C.S., In 1934, Rutherford and her brother Raphael suffered an investment fraud committed by Harrogate stock and share broker Charles A. Mantle, but they sued and won compensation.

On 29 June 1929 in Marylebone, Rutherford married Dr Donald James Brims, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., of Wimpole Street, London, but retained her maiden name. Brims was the resident medical officer of the Croydon General Hospital. Rutherford later stated that she had no children. The 1939 Register indicates that she was married, the marriage certificate remains on record, and the Yorkshire Post and Oban Times and Argyllshire Advertiser reported it at the time in 1929. However, the marriage appears to have been forgotten even during her lifetime,

As a child, Rutherford's nephew Eric Kemp was treated by Rutherford, and grew up to be the Bishop of Chichester. In his autobiography, Kemp wrote that she was "shy, but not retiring". having already opened the event as chairman of the Harrogate Committee. She died in Harrogate, leaving £85,709 .

Career

Journalist Fiona Callow of the Stray Ferret said that, like Dr Laura Veale of Harrogate, she was a "high flyer", a "trailblazer in [her] field" and an "important figure in the local community". Rutherford returned to Scotland in 1914 to train as a medical practitioner at the University of Glasgow, and commenced study at Queen Margaret College, Glasgow, on 21 April 2015. She qualified as MB. ChB in 1920, completing her training at the University of Leeds in 1921.

In 1921, Rutherford was a senior house surgeon at the North Lonsdale Hospital in Barrow-in-Furness, and was still there in 1942. According to Harrogate Soroptimists, she took "various medical posts" before settling in the family GP surgery in Harrogate, alongside her father and two brothers. Her family's medical practice was located at her home which was named after St Mungo's charity, at 12 York Road, Harrogate.

According to Harrogate Soroptimists, Rutherford was a "sought-after" general practitioner in Harrogate, West Yorkshire. and "Doctor Kindly Heart". Rutherford's medical and philanthropic priority was always women and children, and assisted at the St Francis Leprosarium, in Nyenga, Uganda, in 1967 and 1971. In 1969 under the auspices of War on Want, she went to Biskra, Algeria, with an ophthalmologist and nurse, There, under the Algerian Red Crescent, she was occupied in general medicine and eye clinics for five months. According to the Birmingham Daily Post, in 1970 she travelled on a "mercy mission" to Nigeria, taking with her three medics, "three Land Rovers and five tons of medical supplies". She worked in war-torn Biafra, and in 1971 when she was in failing health, refugee camps in Jerusalem. a Lloyd's underwriter, she received seven hundred appeals and begging letters. The charities which benefited from that bequest included leprosy, Save the Children, Guide Dogs for the Blind, War on Want, and famine relief, plus many local causes, including the Harold Styan Boys' Club, The Scotsman, the Halifax Evening Courier, the Newcastle Journal, and the Daily Herald. At the time, she did not expect the war to happen, and believed that it was avoidable. She said in the 1970 Calendar TV programme (described below) that, "it didn't frighten me half as much as it does now – I maybe had more faith in humanity than I do now". She was one of the last to receive that honour from the borough. and held its annual dinner for a hundred members and guests at the Grand Hotel, Harrogate. The former Grand Hotel, built by David Simpson and later known as Windsor House, still stands opposite Rutherford's former surgery.

Soroptimists

From 1933 to 1936 Rutherford was the founder president of the Soroptimist Club of Harrogate. On International Women's Day on 8 March 2021, and her "exploits across the globe, from the 1930s to the 1970s". The programme describes her as being, "recognised as being a legend in her own lifetime".

Around 1970, a plaster Head of Kathleen Rutherford, with bronze-effect finish, was sculpted by artist Kenneth Pigott.