Ida Caroline (Mann) Gye DBE DSc (1893 - 1983)

Born 6 Feb 1893 in Kilburn, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Wife of William Ewart (Bullock) Gye — married 30 Dec 1944 in Brentford, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Died 18 Nov 1983 at age 90 in Dalkeith, Western Australia, Australia

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Biography

Ida (Mann) Gye DBE DSc is Notable.

Professor Doctor Dame Ida Mann DBE DSc MB BS Hon MD FRCS FRAS was a distinguished ophthalmologist, equally well known for her pioneering research work on embryology and development of the eye, and on the influences of genetic and social factors on the incidence and severity of eye disease throughout the world.

Formative years

Ida (Mann) Gye DBE DSc was born in Kilburn, Middlesex, England.

Ida Caroline Mann was born on 6th February 1893 in Kilburn, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom. She was the younger child of Frederick Mann, post office clerk, and his wife Ellen Packham. ^[1] She was educated at Wycombe House School, Hampstead. After passing the Civil Service Girl Clerk's examination she was employed at the Post Office Savings Bank.

Despite opposition from her father, Ida applied to study medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women, the only medical school which was open to women at that time. She passed the matriculation examination in 1914, one of only eight women out of hundreds of passes. She completed her studies, gaining the dual medical degrees Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB, BS) in 1920.

Early career

A brilliant student, Ida gained experience during the First World War at the Fulham Military Hospital, and became a demonstrator in physiology. In 1917, she was appointed as the Ophthalmic House Surgeon at St Mary's Hospital, London, thus beginning a lifelong passion for ophthalmic research and practice. Combining her interest with ophthalmology with interest in embryology developed during medical training, Ida wrote her thesis on the embryology of the human eye, for which she was awarded her Doctor of Science (DSc) in 1924. She also became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) in 1924.

She was soon appointed assistant surgeon at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, and running her own private practice in Harley Street, London. Ida was awarded both the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress’s Doyne medal in 1929 and the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom’s Nettleship medal in 1930.

Ida visited Australia in 1939 as the British Medical Association's representative at the 1st Annual General Meeting of the Ophthalmological Society of Australia (BMA). She flew there in an Imperial Airways Flying Boat, which took a week to fly at low altitude from Southampton to Melbourne. She gave a number of papers and made the return journey 'with the feeling that the gloom of Europe would soon descend, and that this brilliant, sunny and friendly land would be blotted from my memory'.

Second World War

At the outbreak of war, Moorfields Eye Hospital was commandeered as a first aid post and the staff were dispersed. The premises in which Ida conducted her private practice were also closed down by the landlord. She found new premises for her own practice and then set about re-siting Moorfields to hospital premises in Edgware belonging to the Priory of the Holy Sepulchre. As there was still a need for a central London site to treat ophthalmic emergencies, she managed to re-occupy part of the old Moorfields Hospital, which remained operational throughout the war despite being bombed. In 1940 she undertook some personal research on the treatment of mustard gas burns of the eye, using laboratories belonging to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund at Mill Hill. It was here she likely met her future husband, Professor William 'Bill' Gye, the fund's director.

When the results of her private research became known, Ida was put in charge of one of the research teams of the Chemical Defence Research Department under the Ministry of Supply. Although the team did not find a cure, they were able to alleviate symptoms through the use of contact lenses.

During the war, honorary staff were not allowed to resign from their posts at civilian hospitals. Therefore, when Ida applied for, and was appointed to, the post of Margaret Ogilvy Reader in Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford in 1941, she was obliged to combine this research and teaching post with her work at Moorfields, her work on the Chemical Defence Research team and her work as a private consultant in London and Oxford. Her efforts were recognised by the university in 1945 when she was given a personal professorship: the first woman to receive one at Oxford. She was Titular Professor there from January 1945 until 30 September 1947. Ida was also a Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford.

Following his wife's death from cancer, Bill Gye asked Ida to marry him. She accepted and they married on 30th December 1944 in the Brentwood Registrar's Office; ^[2]

Australia

The introduction of the National Health Service in Britain drastically changed Ida's work and she became dissatisfied with the impact on ophthalmology. Perhaps more pressingly, her husband had retired from Mill Hill and was suffering from ill-health which was exacerbated by the English winters.

In 1949 Ida and Bill took an Autumn cruise to Perth and Melbourne, Australia.

Ida (Mann) Gye DBE DSc migrated from England to Western Australia.

They were immediately smitten with Perth. Ida purchased a bungalow in Dalkeith, resigned from Moorfields, and arranged for all their belongings to be shipped to Australia. Here they conducted experiments on cancer viruses using in-bred strains of mice to ensure consistency. Ida started a private practice as an ophthalmologist, which was always her insurance against economic uncertainty. In 1950, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Bill died of cancer in 1952, ^[3] leaving her bereft, 'I was unhinged; so tired that I was almost insane'. She regained her balance by working and travelling through outback Australia.

Ida took an assignment reporting on the incidence of eye disease, especially trachoma, among Aborigines for the Western Australia Public Health Department. This assignment extended to four years and provided incontrovertible proof of endemic trachoma among the indigenous population. She travelled extensively throughout Australia, including then Australian Territoris of Papua and New Guinea (now the independent nation of Papua New Guinea) and Oceania studying the incidence of eye disease in different races and cultures, with particular reference to the Aboriginal people. This research produced the classic work, Culture, Race, Climate and Eye Disease, published in 1966. Indefatigable, through her seventies Ida continued to visit remote Aboriginal communities, in some places finding more than 80 per cent of the inhabitants suffering from trachoma.

Ida published extensively in the area of eye anatomy and eye disease, publishing many scientific articles and several books. She also wrote on her travels and findings relating to trachoma, published under her married name Ida Gye or a pseudonym, Caroline Gye.

In 1980 Ida was created Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for 'services to the welfare of Aboriginal people'.

She was awarded honorary doctorates by both the University of Western Australia in 1977 and Murdoch University in 1983.

Aged ninety years, she passed away at home on 18th November 1983 in Dalkeith. ^[4]

She was inducted into the Ophthalmology Hall of Fame in 2007.

Bibliography

• The Development of the Human Eye. Cambridge, 1928
• Developmental Abnormalities of the Eye. Cambridge, 1937 (2nd edition, 1957)
• The Science of Seeing Co-authored with Antoinette Pirie. Harmondsworth, 1946
• Culture, Race, Climate and Eye Disease. Illinois, 1966
• The Cockney and the Crocodile; as Caroline Gye. London, 1962
• China 13; as Caroline Gye. London, 1964

Sources

1. ↑ UK FreeBMD Birth Index Mar qtr 1893, vol 1a, page 694; registered at Hampstead
2. ↑ UK FreeBMD Marriage Index Dec qtr 1944, vol 3a, page 787/ref> Ida becoming stepmother to her husband's three sons from his first marriage. She did not change her name on marriage, as the complications arising from having two Professor Gyes in the same household were easily foreseen.
3. ↑ Western Australia Death Index #102403/1952
4. ↑ Western Australia Death Index #104352/1983

See also:

• Byrne, Geraldine. 'Mann, Dame Ida Caroline (1893–1983)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2012; accessed online 4 Oct 2023.
• Erickson, Dorothy. 'Mann, Ida Caroline (1893 - 1983)'. The Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia; accessed 4 Oct 2023.
• Wikipedia: Ida Mann; accessed 4 Oct 2023.