Woman born in Malaysia who became one of Wolverhampton's first female doctors dies of old age at 99
A pioneering woman who became one of the first female GPs in Wolverhampton has died at the age of 99.
Dr Ruth Young died of old age on April 18 in a care home in Hereford, having moved there from Tettenhall to be closer to her immediate family.
Born Ruth Keymer in Penang - now Malaysia - in October 1923, she moved to the UK in 1934 and studied medicine at Glasgow University from 1941 to 1946.
She spent all five months of her wartime university holidays working on a farm in Sussex in a Land Army role.
Ruth then qualified MB CHB with a Diploma in Public Health. She moved to Wolverhampton to join her future husband, RAMC war surgeon Henry 'Harry' Young, who was appointed as a consultant surgeon in the newly formed NHS in 1948 at New Cross and the Royal Hospital.
In 1949 she joined Dr William Wallace as a partner at 14 Dudley Road, working full-time and doing her share of on-call and home visiting.
She then moved to a new purpose-built surgery at Duncan Street with Dr Geraint Williams, where she worked, despite being a wife and mother, until she retired in 1986.
She had a passion for women’s health including family planning and was also a cytologist, studying slides with a microscope at the Royal Hospital for the newly introduced Cervical Screening Service.
When General Practice had its own Vocational Training Scheme, she was one of the first GP trainers, influencing the training of many young GPs, and was renowned for her holistic care.
Retirement allowed her to increase her voluntary work, tirelessly fundraising and volunteer working for Compton Hospice, something that her and her husband had helped to set up.
She had travelled extensively, was a keen tennis player until her mid 80s, a talented artist, seamstress and sugarcraft flower cake-maker, amongst many other attributes and community clubs.
Her funeral will be on May 18 at St Judes Church, with details from Jennings.
