| Administrative History | Dr Sybil Kathleen Batley, MBE, MRCS, LRCP, was born in Ipswich 16 June 1897. During the First World War she worked as a laboratory assistant at Lister 1916-1917, Belmont POW Hospital, Belmont, Sutton 1917-1918 and the New Zealand General Hospital, Brockenhurst, Hampshire 1918. Having been accepted as a CMS missionary in 1919, she entered medical training at the London School of Medicine October 1919 and qualified from the Royal Free Hospital June 1925 (WRCS LRCP). She worked briefly as a locum in General Practice before being appointed Casualty Officer of Mildmay Hospital September 1925-February 1926. She attended Kennaway Hall (one of the CMS women's training institutions) before sailing for West Africa and the CMS Niger Mission 24 March 1926.
On arrival at Onitsha, Nigeria, Dr Batley took the place of Mary Elms as Superintendent of Iyi Enu Hospital in 1926 where she continued in the post of superintendent until 1948. She embarked on further studies during this period, passing language exams in summer 1927 and September 1928 and taking a course in tropical medicine at Liverpool when she was invalided home because of persistent ear problems July/August 1929-March 1930. From 1948/1949-1950/1951, she served as CMS Regional Medical Adviser for West Africa during which time she was based at the Rural Development Centre, Anwai, Asaba, Nigeria except for a period in 1950 when she was temporarily stationed at the Princess Christian Hospital, Sierra Leone.
She resigned from CMS in 1951 and went on to work with Berkshire County Council Children's Department 1952-1960. However, she retained a strong association with CMS after her return to the UK: she served on the Medical Committee 1954-1962 and was made Honorary Governor for Life in 1963. In 1948, she was awarded an MBE for her work in Nigeria. She died in Manchester 10 July 1978.
Sources: the records; CMS Annual Reports and Medical Committee minutes; notes supplied by the donor; 'London Gazette' available online at www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/38311/pages/3386/page.pdf (accessed 14 February 2014); 'Sybil K Batley, MBE, MRCS, LRCP', The British Medical Journal , Vol 2, No. 6137 (Aug. 26, 1978), p. 644 published by: BMJ available online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/25428898 (accessed 14 February 2014) |
| Custodial History | On the death of Dr Batley, the records passed to Margaret MacDonald, her niece. Margaret MacDonald is understood to have sorted Dr Batley's writing and she made a handwritten copy of some of her papers. On Margaret's death, Dr Batley's records and her niece's notes passed on to Neil MacDonald, the nephew of Dr Batley, Margaret's brother and executor and husband of the donor.
Information supplied by the donor, January 2014. |
| Archival Note | Fonds level catalogue entry prepared by Ivana Frlan, October 2014; full catalogue prepared by Jennifer Childs, November 2014. Prepared in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997. |