Royal HOMOEOPATHS include
Classical Homoeopathy.
By Dr Margery Blackie CVO, MD, FFHOM.
Edited by Drs Charles Elliott and Frank Johnson.
Beaconsfield Publishers, Beaconsfield 1986.
Pp. 320.
9.50 pounds
Margery Grace Blackie 1898 – 1981
Margery Grace Blackie 1898 – 1981 was an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy to become the homeopath of Queen Elizabeth Margery Grace Blackie was born at Redbourn, Hertfordshire, England in 1898. She qualified in medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women in 1923, and in the following year joined the staff of the London Homeopathic Hospital.
She obtained her M.D. from the London School of Medicine for Women in 1923.
During her career she combined a busy homeopathic general practice with her hospital work, which culminated in her appointment in 1966 as Honorary Consultant Physician to the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital.Homeopathic pioneer Margery Blackie was commemorated with an English Heritage Blue Plaque on 12 October at 3pm at 18 Thurloe Street, London, SW7 where the homeopathic physician lived and worked from 1929 to 1980. The Blue Plaque was unveiled by HRH Princess Alexandra.
She was Dean of the Faculty of Homoeopathy from 1965 to 1979. She was appointed Physician to Queen Elizabeth II in 1968.
Margery Blackie was born in Hertfordshire in 1898, the daughter of a leading homeopath. At the age of five Blackie declared that she wanted to become a doctor, such was the influence of her uncle James Compton Burnett, a leading homeopath himself, and his work upon her.
Blackie entered the London School of Medicine for Women in 1917 and before qualifying became a Resident at the London Homeopathic Hospital. Her experiences at the hospital confirmed her belief in homeopathy, and in 1926 she set up her own practice in Kensington. Here, she developed sound consulting room methods and encouraged patients to tell their story in their own way, while also making a clinical diagnosis of her patients, using conventional methods such as x-rays and pathological tests. Her aim was simple – to understand her patients as deeply as possible.
During the 1930’s, Blackie continued to work at the London Homeopathic Hospital, but spent most of her time developing her own practice. Her flair for diagnosis had become legendary. Patients included a number of public figures such as Julia Myra Hess and Julia de Beausobre Lady Namier.
In 1949, Blackie was elected President of the revitalised Faculty of Homoeopathy. This was a major achievement; she was the only woman office holder in the Faculty – and marked a phase in her life. She took the lead amongst her British colleagues and mixed frequently with homeopaths from all over the world.
In 1964, Blackie was elected Dean of the Faculty of Homoeopathy, with responsibility for all teaching. It was from this position that Blackie influenced a whole generation of homeopathic doctors.
In 1969, in a moment which marked the climax of her career, Blackie was appointed Physician toQueen Elizabeth II. By the mid-1970’s, Blackie’s own health was in decline, but she continued to see patients at 18 Thurloe Street, London, SW7 until 1980, when she left London to retire to Hedingham Castle in Essex. It was there that she died on 24 August 1981.
18 Thurloe Street, London, SW7 was ideally suited to Blackie and served as her home as well as her consulting room. It had a homely atmosphere, and there was always an open fire in the consulting room to welcome patients, students and homeopaths, who would travel from all over the world to sit in during her surgeries.
Dr. Margery Blackie and Sir John Weir
Sir John Weir, GCVO, Royal Victorian Chain (19 October 1879 – 17 April 1971), MB ChB Glasgow 1907, FFHom 1943, Physician Royal to several twentieth century monarchs.
Born in the town of Paisley, in Renfrewshire, Scotland, Dr Weir was to become Physician Royal to King George V (reigned 1910–36; Weir his physician from 1918), King Edward VIII (reigned 1936), King George VI (reigned 1936–52), Queen Elizabeth II (physician 1952-68), and King Haakon VII (1872–1957) of Norway, whose wife Maud (1869–1938) was the youngest daughter of King Edward VII (1841–1910).
Weir attended Allan Glen's School in Glasgow, a school noted for its emphasis on science. He received his medical education first at Glasgow University MB ChB 1907, and then on a sabbatical year in Chicago under the tutelage of Dr James Tyler Kent of Hering Medical College during 1908-9, along with Drs Harold Fergie Woods (1883–1961) and Douglas Borland (1885–1961).
He returned to the London Homeopathic Hospital as Consultant Physician in 1910, and was appointed the Compton-Burnett Professor of Materia Medica in 1911. He rose to become President of the Faculty of Homeopathy in 1923.
He spoke on homeopathy before the Royal Society of Medicine in 1932, and was knighted by King George V that same year. The renovated Manchester Homoeopathic Institute and Dispensary was opened in Oxford Street by Sir John Weir in May 1939. Weir said in an “address: homeopathy…is no religion, no sect, no fad, no humbug…remedies do not act directly on disease; they merely stimulate the vital reactions of the patient, and this causes him to cure himself.” [Sir John Weir, 1931, 200-201]
Having advanced through all levels of the Royal Victorian Order he was, as a rare distinction, awarded the Royal Victorian Chain in 1947, possibly as a mark of the medical care he gave to the ailing King George VI.
