Dorothea Koffman (née Herrmann)

The daughter of a well-known singing teacher, Dorothea Koffman grew up in Berlin between the world wars. She was determined to study medicine but was unable to secure admission to a German university as her mother was Jewish, so she began her studies in Prague in 1935. When the political situation worsened three years later, Dorothea transferred to the University of Berne and then a year after that to the University of Geneva. She was unable to return to Germany as her passport would have been confiscated, and she therefore holidayed in England, where she visited her childhood sweetheart, Jurij. A week after the outbreak of war, Dorothea married Jurij and in this way acquired his Soviet citizenship. She maintained this until she and Jurij were naturalised as British subjects after the war, an act which led the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) to strip them of Soviet citizenship for “offences which deprave the name of the citizen of the USSR.”

In 1946 Dorothea returned to the University of Berne, where she qualified after three years. Back in England, she began work in otolaryngology, after which she gravitated to public health, having variously worked in communicable diseases, mental health, and paediatrics. In addition to early work in London, she served in positions in Middlesex, Derby, Brent, and finally Leicester, where she drew on her formidable administrative skills when faced with the mandate to combine community child health services in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland. In this position she succeeded in rationalising systems and delivering innovative services to children with special needs. She was supportive to staff and sought opportunities for their further training and development, and she was widely respected for her professionalism, organisation, industry, and meticulous attention to detail. Following retirement in 1978, Dorothea did some session work in paediatrics but after several years decided to stay at home, where she designed and maintained a remarkable garden and looked after her ailing, much-loved husband.

Following Jurij's death in 1989, Dorothea continued to pursue her interest in natural history, particularly geology and botany, and she became something of an expert on the life and work of Charles Darwin. She was always keen to debate politics, even at the beginning of her 10th decade, and she maintained her passion for medicine—and for cats and birds. Dorothea had lost most of her relatives during the second world war and did not have children, but she maintained contact with her few remaining family members, scattered across several continents. Gregarious and blessed with a sunny disposition, she also won the love of neighbours and former colleagues in Leicester. Her few family members and many loyal friends provided the support that enabled her to remain independent and happy right up to the end of her life.