Katharina Dorothea Dalton
BMJ 2004; 329 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.329.7473.1048-b (Published 28 October 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:1048Data supplement
Katharina Dorothea Dalton
Former gynaecologist London (b 11 November 1916; q London 1948; FRCGP), d 17 September 2004.
Known to one and all as “Kittie,” she was born in England in 1916 to Dutch parents. After the death of her father she was sent to the Royal Masonic School to be educated. She always wanted to be a doctor but first trained as a chiropodist after winning a scholarship to the London Foot Hospital. She practised for some 12 years and wrote a successful textbook on the subject. Her first husband, Wilfred Thompson, was killed in action in 1942 and as a widow with one son she began to study medicine at the Royal Free Hospital. In 1944 she married Tom Dalton, later a Unitarian minister, with whom she had three more children—two while continuing her medical training. She qualified as a doctor in 1948, on the day the National Health Service came into existence.
On qualifying she began work as a GP in north London. Within months she began to realise that certain symptoms of her women patients came and went with their menstrual cycles; the beginning of her lifelong interest in what she later called the premenstrual syndrome (PMS), on which she and Dr Raymond Greene wrote the first paper in British medical literature in 1952. This pioneering work on the effect of menstruation on schoolgirls’ work, accidents, crime, psychiatric illnesses, and behaviour led to a greater understanding of the sex hormone fluctuations. Over the following decades she had a constant stream of research papers published on PMS, postnatal illness, the importance of a steady blood sugar, and the dangers of vitamin B6 overdose; over a hundred in all. All her work was self funded.
She wrote 10 published books, several were bestsellers, which went into many editions and were translated into 17 languages.
In 1957 she was invited to run the world’s first PMS clinic at University College Hospital, London, which she continued for over 40 years. In 1964 demand by sufferers to see her led to her consulting in Harley Street, where she continued until her retirement in 2000. Then aged 84 she lived in Hereford and later Bournemouth. Kittie is survived by her four children—two of them doctors—and five grandchildren, one also a doctor. [Sarah Holton]
See more
- Introductory AddressProv Med Surg J October 03, 1840, s1-1 (1) 1-4; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s1-1.1.1
- Report of the Meeting of the Eastern Branch of the Provincial Association at Bury St. Edmond'sProv Med Surg J October 03, 1840, s1-1 (1) 10-13; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s1-1.1.10
- Mr. Warburton's Bill for the Regulation of the Medical ProfessionProv Med Surg J October 03, 1840, s1-1 (1) 13-15; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s1-1.1.13
- An Atlas of Plates, illustrative of the Principles and Practice of Obstetric Medicine and Surgery, with descriptive LetterpressProv Med Surg J October 03, 1840, s1-1 (1) 4; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s1-1.1.4
- A Practical Treatise on the Diseases peculiar to Women, illustrated by Cases, &cProv Med Surg J October 03, 1840, s1-1 (1) 4-5; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s1-1.1.4-a
Cited by...
- Katharina ("Kittie") Dalton