An appreciation by Professor Paul Wright
No doubt many, if not all of you, will have seen the notification of the death of Margaret on Thursday, July 22, 2021. Formal obituaries were published widely including in the British Dental Journal 231 on 13th August and in The Times on Friday September 3rd 2021. So this is not another obituary, but an appreciation by someone who knew her in the context of The London Hospital Medical College Dental School (now Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London), of which she was one of its most famous graduates.
Margaret Seward qualified in Dentistry in 1959, and enjoyed an illustrious career in dentistry; she was the first woman to be appointed as The London’s Resident Dental House Officer, the first woman to be elected as President of the GDC, only the second woman to be made President of the BDA and the first ever dental Dame.
Following graduation Margaret held a succession of posts in both the hospital services, training as an oral surgeon, and the School Dental Service. In 1962 she married another London Graduate, Gordon Seward, since Professor. I think I first met Margaret when I was a student and she was a part time teacher in Oral Surgery. I also remember her well known work on teething, later the subject of her MDS thesis. This work also led to the production of a film ‘Nothing but the Tooth’, which received its preview at the 4th International Congress of Dentistry in Paris and was shown at the 1975 Old Londoners Postgraduate meeting. From 1975-8 Margaret developed her research profile with the help of grants from the Postgraduate Medical Federation and Council of Europe.
Following a brief interlude to have their children Pamela and Colin, Margaret went back to work when the children were aged five and three. In her memoir, Margaret said, “I had a project with the Department of Health about the return of women and the difficulties they, like me, had in getting back on the ladder’. Subsequently, I well remember working with Margaret on the ‘Getting Back to Practise’ course run at ‘The London’ for many successful years.
As an Alumna, Margaret’s association with ‘The London’ continued for the whole of her life. She was President of The London Hospital Dental Club in 1989/90, presented the Evelyn Sprawson Memorial Lecture in 1999 and was awarded the Slack medal in 2000 (awarded to individuals who have made a particularly outstanding contribution to the College and its successor bodies). She was an Honorary Member of The London Hospital Dental Club (since incorporated into Barts and The London Alumni Association) and an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary University of London.
The life of this remarkable woman may be enjoyed in her book ‘Open Wide’ ‘Memoir of the Dental Dame’ published in 2009 by The Memoir Club, Arya House, Langley Park, Durham DH7 9XE
Professor Paul S Wright(Dentistry BDS, 1969) Former Dean of the Dental School and Past-President of BATLAA and Barts and The London Dental Club