Class of 1953
This biography is primarily based on an interview with Dr Senga Whittingham conducted in 2023 for the Early Medical Women of New Zealand project. The interview was conducted by Professor Cindy Farquhar and the biography was written by Michaela Selway. All quotes come from this interview.
Contents
Early Years
Senga Florence Whittingham was born on 20 November 1926 in Invercargill, New Zealand, as the only daughter of William and Agnes Cadden (nee McKenzie) Whittingham. William, originally from England, worked as a primary school teacher at various schools around Southland throughout Senga’s childhood. This resulted in the family moving around a fair amount during her early years. Prior to teaching, William had trained in engineering, but had been badly gassed in the First World War and thus changed to a less strenuous career. Agnes was a third-generation New Zealander, born on 22 June 1889 to James and Mary (also documented as Marion) Eleanor Josephine McKenzie. She had trained and worked as a teacher before her marriage, at which point she became a housewife. She was 37 years old when she gave birth to Senga.
Senga’s mother’s cousin, Norman Matheson, had studied medicine at the Otago Medical School and graduated in 1924 before moving to England where he pursued a career as a surgeon. He has a ward at Ashford County Hospital named after him. Senga’s own cousin, Alan Robert McKenzie, also trained in medicine at Otago Medical School, graduating in the early 1950s. He worked as an Orthopaedic Surgeon at Auckland Hospital. Alan’s second child, also named Alan, pursued medicine and later trained as an anaesthetist.
Schooling
Senga attended Southland Girls High School. She achieved academically well in her classes. As with most schools of the time, the girls were taught very limited science. Nevertheless, Senga was captivated by the subject and decided she wanted to pursue it as a career, specifically in the field of medicine. This was in stark contrast to the dream career she had imagined having as a child – a poet. “I grossly over-estimated my talents” [1]. She matriculated in 1944.
Medical School
Senga enrolled in Medical Intermediate in 1945, and took two years to complete the course. It was very intensive, especially since she had not received adequate preparation in high school. Moreover, the available places for new students at the medical school were limited due to the many returned servicemen who desired a place at the university. When she started the course, she did not know anyone from her pre-university years except for Elman Poole [2].
Senga received financial support from her parents to assist with accommodation and living costs while in Otago. During the summer, she would work at the chocolate factory in Dunedin (which later became the Cadbury Chocolate Factory) or at the local hospital in Riverton, where her parents lived after their retirement. Senga primarily travelled around Dunedin on a bike and when she wanted to travel home to Invercargill during the holidays, she went by train.
The city of Dunedin was not a surprise to Senga, as she had an aunt, Mary Elizabeth Burrell, living in the area, and her family had often visited her. In fact, Senga lived with this aunt for the first few years of her studies. After a few years, however, Mary fell ill, and Senga moved in temporarily with her classmate, Margaret (Maggie) Hunt (subsequently married and became Liley) who had bought a house and she stayed there until she found a room in Castle Street.
One of the tutors whom Senga remembered the most was Solomon Fane, who tutored microbiology. Some of her notable professors were Sir John Eccles, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1963, Sir Charles Hercus who was elected Dean of the Medical School in 1937 and knighted in 1947, Professor Frederick Smirk who specialised in hypertension, and Professor Austin Doyle who lectured cardiology. She felt very fortunate to have these professors on staff, and she felt that students at the time did not appreciate how lucky they were to have them.
The students were never separated in lectures, but the women were only given one body to work on in the anatomy laboratories. Women were also not allowed to visit Seacliff Psychiatric Hospital (formerly known as Seacliff Lunatic Asylum). This was because, a few years prior, a female employee, Evelyn Belle Lind (also known as Polly Lind), had published an article discussing how appalled she was with the psychiatric care in New Zealand, “and that went down like a lead balloon”. The women students were all told that they needed to be protected rather than receive experience visiting Seacliff:
“We all lined up when the bus took away the men, and shouted and carried on, and then we all sat down and discussed schizophrenia, which we found a very difficult disease … It was memorable for us because we felt so upset that we were treated in this way. And we felt that the excuse they gave us was not the real reason… that they had to protect the women from these mad people up in Seacliff” when really it was, we believed, Evelyn’s comments that were the reason.” [3]
All the students were required to complete a fifth-year public health project. For her topic, Senga chose sawmilling accidents. She always stressed about the exams, considering herself a lazy student who would only study hard the closer it got to the exam.
Senga graduated in 1953 alongside 12 other women, including Colleen Hall (nee Conyngham), Margaret Liley (nee Hunt), Clara Rawley (nee Jackson), Phyllis Brass, Eva Hersch, and Kathleen Standage.
Senga was “thrilled” with the first job she received after her graduation because it was in neurosurgery at Dunedin Hospital and she was, at that time, very interested in neurology. Unfortunately, the consultant at the time was Dr Tony James, and he was reluctant to take a “bloody woman”. Though she kept the job, he did not treat her very well at first.
“The neurosurgical operations at that stage were very lengthy, up to 10 hours, and corticosteroids weren’t given then. There was no way of lowering the blood pressure. That’s how I became friendly with Pat Mackay, because Pat was the anaesthetic registrar, and she was doing research. She built a box with a vacuum to put the patient in for brain surgery.”
Senga did have access to the nurse’s facilities as there were no suitable facilities for medical staff who were women, but these were not located in the operating theatres.
In 1958, Senga heard from Patricia Mackay, whom she was still good friends with, that the medical scene in Melbourne was “a marvellous place”. Another friend who was a current Fulbright Scholar in Melbourne reinforced this. An opportunity for an interview arose when the Professor of Microbiology at Melbourne University travelled to Dunedin. Senga applied for an interview with him and was offered the job. In the end, however, she took a position at the Red Cross in Melbourne, which at that time had research laboratories. The head of the research laboratory was Dr Rachel Jakobowitz, a woman doctor who had worked in Berlin as a scientist but came to Melbourne as a migrant. The head of the Red Cross had specifically sought her out for the job, and Senga was grateful to work under her. “She really taught me science.”
Senga’s first job in Melbourne was in blood grouping, but after some time Rachel put her in charge of blood typing and genetics for the Queen Victoria Women’s Hospital. She became quite focused on Rh-disease. One woman
“was desperately anaemic and had to be transfused. I tried to type her but it was just difficult. I couldn’t match her at all. There was only a little bit of blood because she was so anaemic. She reacted with every donor’s blood but she also reacted to different degrees. She had a pan-hemagglutinin and so she had to have some blood and she needed the most compatible. And I thought, she’s specifically acting against something of her own. I remember I worked for hours on it. I tested about 20 times until I ran out of blood. And then I wrote a report to say that I thought she had an auto agglutinin as well as pan-hemagglutinin.”
Ian Mackay told Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet about the case, because it was the first auto-agglutinin described, and was consistent with Sir Macfarlane’s theory of autoimmunity – he went on to win a Noble Prize for his work on autoimmunity.
After this experience, Senga realised how interested she was in pathology, so in 1962 she decided to move to England to pursue a Diploma in Clinical Pathology. Senga found the course quite interesting – they focused on various subjects in pathology. The entire course was one year long and focused on various subjects in pathology. She was fortunate to receive an offer of lodging from the Postgraduate Committee at the William Goodenough House in Bloomsbury for the duration of the course. The final exams ran for a week straight. It consisted of written exams in the morning and practical in the afternoon. On the Friday afternoon, Senga had her oral exam with Sir John Dacey.
“He questioned me and questioned me and I thought he was about to fail me. And I was just about to get up and say, ‘Look, I’ve had enough’. Until he said, ‘What are you going to do? Where are you going to work?’ And I said, ‘I really loved England but I will return to Australia to be near my widowed mother who was alone in New Zealand.’ And he offered me a job in his department at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, where he specialised in autoimmune blood diseases. I was Registrar to the Department of Haematology. And so, going from a very low level from the exam, I went to a very high level with happiness. And I worked at Hammersmith for a year.”
Return to Melbourne and Career Redirection
In 1965, Senga returned to Melbourne to take up a position as Senior Research Fellow and Honorary Assistant Physician to the Head (Dr Ian Mackay) of the Clinical Research Unit, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and The Royal Melbourne Hospital. There she completed a PhD in “Fluorescence Microscopic Serological Studies in Human Autoimmune Disease” and was admitted as a Fellow to the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia (RCPA) and a Fellow to the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). Between 1965 and 1987 she, with Dr Ian Mackay, undertook major research in auto-immune diseases in a Unit comprising research laboratories attached to a 27 bed ward at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
During this time she participated in a number of activities, becoming a member of Executive, Standardization Programme WHO International Union of Immunological Societies, a member of the Immunological Subcommittee, Board of Education RPCA, a member, including term as Secretary, of the Joint Specialist Advisory Committee in Immunology and Allergy RACP and RCPA, Chief Examiner (6-year term) for Immunology RCPA Consultant in Immunology for WHO including a two month assignment in Indonesia, two short terms in India, and organiser of annual short courses at the Immunology Research and Training Centre, Singapore, Associate Editor of “Pathology” RCPA, and Life member of AMA (Australian Medical Association), ASI and the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy.
Following retirement from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research at the age of 65 years, she spent a year as Consultant to the Clinical Immunology Laboratory, Department of Haematology, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, (Joint appointment with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research). Then in 1994 she was appointed Senior Research Fellow, Centre of Molecular Biology and Medicine, Monash University, where she remained as a visiting scientist to the autoimmune laboratory until finally retiring at the age of 90 years.
Senga had an impressive career in research, publishing extensively research from her work at the Walter and Eliza Institute of Medical Research. Reflecting on her career, Senga said that that her main interest was with the autoimmune disease and the disorders in the immune system associated with autoimmunity.
Looking back on her career, Senga felt that she had a satisfying career in medical research as a clinical immunologist and this was reflected in over 200 publications of her original work, solicited reviews, and book chapters. Her career path was “a wonderful challenge”. Senga still lives in her home in South Yarra, Melbourne. She enjoys reading, gardening and bird watching [1].
Senga has approved this biography for publication. August 2024.
Notes
- “Get to know out members: Senga Whittingham”, Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology Inc., 11 December 2020, https://www.immunology.org.au/blogs/Latest-News/Get-to-know-our-members-Senga-Whittingham/.
- Elman Poole was a very successful clinical neurophysiologist who practiced for most of his career in Oxford. Upon his death, he bequeathed money to both the University of Otago and the Southland Girls’ and Boys’ Schools for students interested in pursuing a degree in either science or music. He also established a travelling scholarship to support PhD students to engage with research facilities overseas.
- Evelyn (Polly) Lind went on to study medicine and graduated in 1954. She later trained as a psychoanalyst.
