| Administrative History | Mary Esslemont was born in Aberdeen in 1891, and in 1914 graduated BSc from the University of Aberdeen, where she participated fully in student life, being the first female president of the Student University Council and she was a noted Aberdeen suffragist. She worked as an assistant in the Botany department at the University of Aberdeen, and as a science lecturer at Stockwell Training College, London, before entering the medical school, from which she graduated in 1923. She was appointed assistant medical officer of health in Keighley, Yorkshire, from 1924 - 1929, before returning to Aberdeen, where she was in private practice for over 30 years.
She was a member of council of the British Medical Association for 23 years, during which time she served on its Public Health, Amending Acts, Joint BMA and Royal College of Nursing, Occupational Health, and Journal committees. She was also the first woman to serve on the Scottish Council, and became its chairperson in 1968. During her time in Aberdeen she became involved in many other local organisations and causes, for which work she was awarded freedom of the City in 1981. She served on the University General Council for over 40 years, and in 1947 became the first woman assessor on the University Court. Maintaining her family's well-established association with local politics (her father and grandfather had both been Liberal MPs for Aberdeen South), she became first woman president of Aberdeen Liberal Association in 1954. In 1954 she received an honorary LL D (Aberdeen) and in 1955 was awarded a CBE. |
| Description | Interviews with Dr Mary Esslemont, recorded on 23rd August 1984, by Dorothy Johnston.
Transcript of interview recorded on 23 August 1984:
J [Moving on to the point when you returned from Keithley to practice in Aberdeen, can you tell me] what sort of contacts you maintained with the university after you came back to Aberdeen. Did you know many people who were still in the university?
E Yes I knew quite a few, staff anyway.
J Had many of your contemporaries joined the staff?
E Well a good many had. It kept me in contact, and of course we had a very good alumnus association and that keeps us in contact.
J What sort of activities did you do with them?
E Oh mostly a social evening, that sort of thing. It allowed people to mix and keep up with one another.
J And the General Council itself you were involved in that, I understand?
E Yes, I [was] on the General Council for a long time.
J I understand that it was in 1946 that you first went onto the Court of the University. How did you come to be on the Court?
E I was appointed by the General Council.
J Can you-remember whether anybody suggested it particularly to you?
E I don't know that I aimed at it, it just happened.
J [During your association] with the Court, it must have changed quite a bit?
E Well it didn't change much in my time. We stayed very much the same. It's only more recently that they've been having so many changes. I am not really in on that.
J No well it is this early period that is interesting, because the minutes of the university Court tend to be very formal and they don't give much impression of how Court actually functioned at that stage or who was active on it.
E But they were quite active.
J Can you recall any of the particular individuals from your early period on Court?
E There was John Ross you see of the Grandholm Works. He was a very influential person on the Court because he controlled the Ross/Crombie Trust, and of course that was a source of money.
J So he would have been quite vocal at meetings.
E Yes and a very bossy administrator, but of course it paid the university to keep in with him because he had the Ross/Crombie Trust money. He didn't have it but he controlled it.
J Were there any other individuals like that who were not university people who were influential in the Court? [What about] Sir William Scott Brown?
E Yes, Sir William Scott Brown was a member of the Indian Civil Service and when he retired he came to Aberdeen and he became quite active in the Court. I think he was Treasurer for a bit, but he worked quite a lot with the university. He had two sisters. Now what did they do? They were connected with the university too. I think their mother was the Head of the seamstress department in what was then Sangster and Henderson.
J So the people who were on the Court who were not members of the university staff were really quite influential people in decision-making for the university?
E Yes, usually they were people in control of money or something which particularly affected the university.
J What about the legal side of the university's interests. Can you recall anybody from perhaps the body of solicitors in Aberdeen who had that sort of influence.
E Yes, now there was a lawyer that did a lot of legal work, I mean he took a lot of interest. I've just forgotten his name.
J It wasn't Farquhar MacRitchie.
E No.
J When you first joined the Court, Principal Fife was in office. What was his sort of style of chairing the meetings. Was he a very democratic person in his office?
E Well, he was quite democratic, he was a very fair-minded man. You couldn't place him politically really, he was so non-political.
J Was he a very academic sort of man?
E More, yes.
J Was there much of a contrast then when Principal Wright came?
E No, not so much then.
J And when Principal Taylor was in office [did] everything function in very much the same way?
E Yes, but he was a very active man.
J When business came before the Court [did the] papers that were circulated in advance leave much room for discussion and debate?
E A good deal. You see there were very few changes for years and years and years and then just suddenly much more recently they needed a lot more discussion. But it's almost since my time, that.
J But a lot of very important decisions were made in the 50s and 60s. For instance, the building and the expansion of the university.
E Yes, that's true.
J And the location of many of the departments at Old Aberdeen.
E Yes. Of course, that was the expansion of the university from the point of view of room.
J Was there ever any question that they might be able to do different things with Marischal College [as a building]?
E No I don't think so.
J So there wasn't much disagreement about decisions to move departments to Old Aberdeen?
E No. You see in the early days German for instance was in Marischal and Political Economy was in Marischal and they were moved out to King's with no trouble at all.
J Where would you say the real centre of the university was during this period in the 50s and 60s. Did you feel it to be at Marischal?
E In the 50s and 60s, when I was a citizen? Well I always felt just speaking as a citizen apart from the university, that it didn't make itself felt in the way it should at all. It just didn't make that impression in the town.
J Do you think it could have done anything to alter this?
E Yes, I think it might. It was partly due to the fact you see that Old Aberdeen was a sort of complete community and that sort of made for it, I think.
J When you were on Court did you make any effort to involve the university more in the city?
E I don't know if I did it so much when I was in the Court. I tried to when I was a student more than I was able to once I got on the Court.
J [Returning to Court, what about] the academics themselves there on Court. I wondered if you could recall very much about their contribution?
E The university Professors? I don't recall anything particularly outstanding out of that.
J Professor Mackinnon would have been one of them?
E Professor Mackinnon was a very original Professor and he had a great sense of humour. Alma Mater which was the students' magazine at the time mentioned that he was very fond of I think it was morning rolls, and he had never even eaten them, so he thought he better get some and see what they were like. He was that sort of man, he had a sense of humour.
J And was he particularly active on the Court or not?
E He was really a very normal member.
J So you worked very much as a joint body? What about the administrative members of the Court or people in attendance?
E Well, of course there was Harry Butchart, he was a Secretary. Oh he held the reins quite well.
J He has always sounded like a very strong character.
E Yes.
J And what about Secretary Angus?
E He was a very good Secretary but he wasn't popular with the Principal.
J Did that make for difficulties?
E It made for some difficulties. Well it just wasn't harmonious you know.
J Did you ever have people in attendance at Court to give information who were not actually members of the Court?
E Not often, no. Not that I can think of.
J And the other person is the Rector. Occasionally the Rector has been active on the Court. Was Mr Grimmond an active Rector?
E Yes he was an active Rector, very active.
J What about Peter Scott?
E Yes, he was very good. He was a very interesting member. He used to attend quite well, very well. I went down for an excursion once to his place in the South and I sent across to see if he remembered his spell in Aberdeen and of course he did, very much.
J During this period you must have seen a tremendous change in the style of Rectorship from the time you were a student?
E Yes, in the early days the Rector was always political and that was the only way in which the politics were really studied and then when that changed of course it was quite a different type of person they chose.
J Do you think that this change has been for the better?
E Not altogether, no.
J Would you like to say a little more about that? Do you think it has been against the interests of the students?
E I don't know. In the old days it aroused their interest, you see. Well they don't have that now.
J But some of the Rectors would have been quite influential men on the Court would they?
E Oh yes they were quite. I can't quite recall which ones were.
J One name that I have noticed on the lists is Lord Provost Stephen.
E Well he was on as Provost I expect. They appoint somebody to attend the Court although they don't always attend.
J The fact that he attended did this mean that he was interested?
E That's right.
J I mentioned before the question of the buildings programme in the 50s and 60s. Did the initiative come from the university or was there pressure on the university from the Grants Commission and external bodies from the government?
E No, I think it was all from the university.
J And would you say that the different Principals were particularly important in this policy?
E Oh yes, they were important.
J They were the ones that wanted this expansion?
E Yes, and that sort of thing.
J It was also the period at which the university bought a great deal of property in Old Aberdeen.
E Yes, that was a very good buy.
J And this was something that people generally-
E Yes, and there was a lawyer..., what was his name, Crombie I think. He advised them well.
J One of the other things that coincided with this period was the establishment of the Halls of Residence.
E Yes. Well they started a Hall of Residence in Skene Street for the women but it was no use, it wasn't near anywhere, so that was given up, and so now they have the ones of course in the old town.
J I think that the Foresterhill Hall was one of the early ones.
E Yes. You see we tried to get Halls of Residence for them in the early days and they just wouldn't use them. They preferred to be in digs where they were sort of independent so that was slow in developing.
J Was this something that you felt was a very good thing?
E Oh it was good, yes it was good.
J Because Aberdeen is one of the best provided universities in terms of places for students.
E You mean for digs?
J Well for Halls of Residence. The university itself provides very generously.
E Oh, it does yes.
J The other point of development at this time was of course the library itself.
E Yes, oh it was a big development.
J They didn't though actually get a new building at that period.
E No. It was very crowded, too crowded.
J This was rather surprising considering how many other departments did get buildings.
E The students used to go there to study in the evening you see.
J And was there any particular reason why they didn't get a new library at that point?
E No. I suppose it was finance perhaps.
J Well speaking of finance I think you were actually on the Finance Committee of the Court. Did this take up a great deal of your time?
E Well we had a regular meeting you see of the Court and then we had this regular meeting of the Finance Committee once a month. So to begin with it wasn't a lot of work. But as I was doing general practice in town, after a bit when the meetings increased it became quite a bit of work.
J But did you remain on the Committee?
E Yes.
J Were there any particular sub-committees that you can recall having served on?
E There was the Residence sub-committee and I think there was one for the Sports and that sort of thing as well.
J Just on a very general sort of note. We have mentioned several times how much the university has grown and changed. Did people generally think it was a good thing that the university should expand so much in the 60s.
E Oh yes, I think they felt that it was quite good. It added something to the town.
J But now of course the university has been cut back.
E Oh yes, it has been cut back quite a lot.
J Do you think that looking back it would have been better to have remained a smaller university.
E No, I don't think so.
J Well I think that probably brings to a natural conclusion of your Court [involvement]. Of course it ended with you being given an Honorary LL.D. That must have been a great honour for you.
E That's quite an honour yes.
END OF INTERVIEW |