Mary Rankin – Family Planning Nurse

Meet Mary Rankin, a family planning nurse, as part of our series “Inspirational You, Awesome Sisters United”.

Mary is an extraordinary 94-year-old lady who has lived through World War II, served as an army nurse, experienced general practice through the eyes of a wife, and educated hundreds of healthcare professionals about family planning. She is also a mother of 4, grandmother of 12, and great-grandmother of 13 children.

Our founder Catherine was very privileged to meet her at her home in Edinburgh where they talked about her fascinating life.

Born in Edinburgh in 1929, Mary Rankin didn’t have the easiest childhood. Tragically, her mother died when she was 7 years old leaving her father to bring up Mary and her younger sister on his own. Seeking help to raise his girls, he remarried quickly to a woman who turned out to be “a proper fairy-tale stepmother.” As a result, Mary and her sister soon moved to live with their aunt, uncle, and cousins.

Much of Mary Rankin’s teenage years were lived amidst World War II, a time when Edinburgh suffocated under a blanket of thick yellow smog from factories, incinerators, and domestic coal fires, and the city lived in fear. Edinburgh was spared the worst of the Blitz, but occasional stray bombs were offloaded as fighter aircraft returned from their main target, Clydebank.

Mary’s uncle was a doctor and worked tirelessly throughout the War. His surgery was also his home, so Mary became accustomed to seeing patients and found it a natural progression to pursue a nursing vocation herself.

Mary Rankin was accepted into nursing school in 1946. At 17 years of age, she left home to live with the other student nurses in a large house at Edinburgh Western General Hospital. They attended daily lectures in the schoolhouse for 3 months before sitting an examination which would allow them to progress to 3 years of practical experience on the hospital wards. Mary’s training rotation included Surgery, Neurology, Paediatrics and General Medicine.

Paediatrics was her favourite. At that time outbreaks of infectious diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, and scarlet fever were commonplace. The national childhood vaccination programme against diphtheria, pertussis, polio, and tuberculosis was not introduced until 1956, and measles and tetanus vaccines were developed even later in the 1970s.

Many of the babies Mary looked after were suffering from dehydration due to gastroenteritis. Mary remembers holding syringes of fluids over the babies for hours, gradually rehydrating them. The only antibiotic available was an early type of sulfonamide.

Rationing, which had been introduced during WWII, remained in place until 1954 and childhood illnesses caused by poor nutrition, such as rickets, were common. There was a shortage off many foods, but a surplus of others which were easy to grow at home in gardens. This led to the Doctor Carrot Campaign, encouraging children to eat more vegetables. Imaginative culinary options included carrot jam, carrot curry, carrot pudding, and carrot lollies (a raw carrot on a stick).

When Mary graduated as a State Registered Nurse, she was given a post on the medical wards at the Northern General Hospital in Edinburgh. It was there that she met, Harry, a junior doctor completing his house officer year.

Harry was popular with his patients, one of whom owned The Melville Castle Hotel. Upon recovery, this gentleman invited Harry to bring a couple of his friends to dinner. This was to be Harry and Mary’s first date. Accompanied by Dennis who was a dentist, Harry and Mary enjoyed the most wonderful evening at The Melville Castle Hotel.

However, upon leaving they found themselves in “pea soup” fog. The only way to navigate safely was for Dennis to walk in front of Harry’s car to guide them. Mary did not return home until long after her curfew and was met at the door by her uncle who was beside himself with worry. Mary got into so much trouble she decided to move out.

The following day she visited an army recruitment office in Hanover Street and signed up for Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps. She was posted to Hindhead in Surrey which just so happened to be near Aldershot where Harry was about to undertake his compulsory national service.

They spent a year courting. Just before Harry embarked on his first post (a troop ship travelling to Japan) he proposed to Mary in Guildford Park. While Harry served abroad, Mary worked in a chest hospital in England. They married in Edinburgh in 1955 and were blessed with 4 children: Marjory, Jim, John, and David.

Harry became a GP in Mary’s Uncle’s practice in Stockbridge, and, after a career break to care for their young family, Mary was invited to work at the Family Planning Clinic just around the corner from the Stockbridge Health Centre, in Dean Terrace.

The Edinburgh Mother’s Welfare Clinic, as it was originally named, was founded by 2 doctors, Maeve Marwick and Alexandra Lothian. They ran the clinic from humble shop premises where women would wait on wooden benches to be seen. There was only one cold tap in the building and the doctors were unpaid.

However, in 1957, a bequest of £2,000 allowed the purchase of Dean Terrace, which would become a ground-breaking centre of expertise in modern contraception. Until the 1960s, contraceptive options meant only diaphragms and thick rubber condoms.

But in the early 1960s, the contraceptive pill, intra-uterine devices and latex condoms became available. (Find out more about the History of Contraception on our blog.)

Mary Rankin began work at Dean Terrace Family Planning Clinic in the mid-60’s, an exciting and revolutionary time in sexual health. Initially, her role was to prepare the female patients to see a doctor to discuss the pill. She performed essential observations such as blood pressure, height, and weight and put the ladies at ease before their consultation.

However, Mary Rankin steadily progressed to become the lead training family planning officer for Lothian. She attended conferences in Glasgow and at the Family Planning Association in London.

Mary used her skills and knowledge to teach hundreds of other healthcare professionals about family planning. She also set up outreach clinics in many parts of Edinburgh.

The concept of family planning developed in the late 19^th century amidst much controversy and considerable opposition from the church. Much of the medical profession (who were almost all men at that time) disapproved. It was thought that enabling women to have control over their fertility would encourage infidelity, moral disrepute and even insanity. These ideas were deeply threatening to a male dominated society.

The first birth control clinic In the world opened in 1882 in Amsterdam. The clinic gave free contraceptive advice and diaphragms, “the Dutch cap” to poor women. These women were at higher risk of ill-health related to pregnancy and infant mortality, poor sanitation, overcrowding and worsening poverty.

The first “Mother’s Clinic for Constructive Birth Control” in the UK was opened by Marie Stopes in 1921.

However, contraceptive services were not free of charge, and they were only available to married women, who had to show their wedding rings and marriage certificates. Unmarried women could not get advice until Helen Brook opened the Brook Advisory Centres in 1964.

It was not until 1967 that legislation was changed to reflect more modern social attitudes to sex and family planning. The 3 ground-breaking acts included:

The Abortion Act: which legalised abortions by registered medical practitioners.

The Sexual Offences Act: which decriminalised male homosexuality.

The Family Planning Act: which enabled the NHS to provide contraception and advice for all, including the unmarried.

In addition to the many middleclass married women who attended Dean Terrace, Mary Rankin also looked after a different kind of clientele. 17 Danube Street, located a stone’s throw away, was home to Edinburgh’s most infamous brothel.

This house was run by Dora Noyce, a former “call girl” herself. Using prostitution to escape poverty, Dora managed to earn enough from her trade to purchase a large townhouse. A vision of respectability, dressed in twinsets and pearls, Dora ran her “house of leisure and pleasure,” employing 15 girls in permanent residence.

She looked after them well and took them for regular medical checks. At busy times, such as the Edinburgh Festival, or the gathering of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland fortnight, up to 25 extra girls were taxied in from Glasgow.

As well as being the Lothian Family Planning Training Officer, Mary Rankin was of course, mother to 4 children and the “Doctor’s Wife.”

Harry had one GP Partner with whom to share his workload. They divided the on-call work evenly to cover nights, weekends, and holidays. Mary recalls that Harry was not good on the phone at night and did not suffer fools gladly.

As Mary seemed to be better able to function on little sleep, she routinely answered the phone for Harry, and would often give out minor medical advice without disturbing him. One night a mother called at 3am because she had discovered her child had worms and Mary wasn’t sure what to do. Harry was unimpressed to say the least and firmly told the patient go to sleep and come to see him in the morning.

The family doctor played a prominent role in the social welfare of their community. One Christmas Day Harry and Mary, accompanied by their children, climbed steep stairs to a small flat. They found a poor family sitting in a room furnished with one bed where they all slept together. The father, a bus driver, had been unable to work due to crippling back pain. The Rankin family presented them with a box of food so that they could share Christmas dinner.

Mary also bought bread, butter, milk, and sausages for a mother and 3 children she visited in Niddrie. She had been called to perform a coil check due to irregular menstrual bleeding, but upon finding the family hungry and without breakfast she spent her own money on rations.

Mary and Harry’s children were involved with medical care too. Their daughter, Marjory babysat for families so that wives could visit their sick husbands in hospital, and their youngest son, David, transported blood samples on his bike from his dad’s practice to the laboratory at the Western General Hospital. He also took semen samples from the family planning clinic to the lab to check whether the vasectomy operations had been effective. He was paid 10 pence per trip.

Mary Rankin worked at Dean Terrace Family Planning Clinic for 20 years. She oversaw many advancements, including the adoption of sexual health services by the NHS and the free provision of contraception to all.

Her example inspired her family to continue in the profession of nursing. Mary’s daughter, Marjory became a midwife and a district nurse, and Marjory’s daughter is a specialist nurse in oncology at the Edinburgh Western General Hospital.

Mary Rankin is extremely well cared for by her family and enjoying life as a proud grandmother and great-grandmother.