Laetitia Ede was born on 17 July 1877 in Sheffield, Yorkshire. She was the daughter of parish priest, Rev. William Ede, who became Professor of History at Armstrong College, University of Durham (now University of Newcastle) and later the Dean of Worcester. Her mother was Eleanor Catherine Ede. Laetitia was part of a large family of five children.
Very much part of the scientific and suffragist spirit of her times, Laetitia must have been one of the earliest women to qualify as a doctor, taking her Bachelor of Medicine exams at London University in 1904, and being certified as a doctor on June 10 1904. Her first post was as a locum doctor in the Orkney Islands during the winter months, where she would be rowed to her patients in an open boat.
Whilst working as the resident medical officer at Wycombe Abbey Girls School, she met her future husband, Dr Robert Hutchison, the well-known paediatrician and specialist in rickets, whom she married in 1905. They made their home at 32 Devonshire Place, Westminster, where they both practised as family doctors. In 1939, she became Lady Hutchison, as Robert was created a Baronet, having been appointed as the President of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1940 they were bombed out of their home in Westminster and moved to Streatley, in Berkshire, where Laetitia nursed her husband through years of debilitating disease before he died in 1960.
Charitable work of Epsom College
Our particular interest in Laetitia, apart from her joining the profession so early in the history of women in medicine, is that she took an important interest in the charitable work of Epsom College, through the Royal Medical Foundation.
She joined the College Council in 1933, one of the first women to do so. She was particularly interested in women’s education and took a leading part in administering our bursaries and scholarships. Long before girls became an important part of the College itself, the Royal Medical Foundation was giving scholarships and bursaries through the St Ann’s Foundation, established in the City of London to financially support girls in education. Originally St Ann’s ran a school in Reigate, similar to the Royal Medical Benevolent College, but this collapsed under financial strain during the First World War.
The endowments remained intact and this meant that girls were then sponsored in education all over the country. Decisions as to cases had to be taken through the Conjoint Board and a close eye needed to be kept on individuals (in a time long before a case-worker was appointed). Laetitia – Lady Hutchison voluntarily did this work, representing the girls to the Board and the Board to the girls, over a very long period, until Robert became too ill for her to continue. You might almost say that, during a period of about 15 years, Laetitia was girls’ education at Epsom College. Serving through the war years and into the 1950s, Laetitia only resigned from the Council at the stage when the St Ann’s Foundation was exhausted, and the work could not long continue in that format.
Lady Laetitia Hutchison died a few years after Robert, in June 1964.
Minutes of the 99th Annual General Meeting of the Governors
16 July, 1952
Resignation of Lady Hutchison
After almost 20 years of most distinguished service to the Council and the College Lady Hutchison, M.B. has felt compelled to resign as a result of increasing pressure of work in her home area, where she has many commitments. Lady Hutchison first joined the Council in February 1933 and she brought all her knowledge and energies to bear for the good of the School and the Royal Medical Foundation. She was a tower of strength in the Conjoint Committee where her work with the Ladies Guild enabled her to give the most complete help and advice.
She took special charge, as it were, of the girls who were helped by the Foundation and every term’s report of each girl went to her for study and consideration; when it came to the time for the girl to leave school, her advice to the mother and to the girl herself was full of practical and kindly help.
Dr Kenneth H. Tallerman wrote her obituary for the British Medical Journal, describing her personality:
“She was a most delightful person, charming, vivacious, amusing, and full of robust common sense. She was always forthright, and one felt that she took an almost impish pleasure in occasionally making some remark calculated to debunk one or other of the more pompous medical men or women who came within her orbit.”
