A brief introduction to some of the women who played a significant role in the creation and development of occupational therapy
Margaret Barr Fulton MBE 1900-1989
In 1925 Peg Fulton, as she was known, became the first occupational therapist to work in the United Kingdom. She qualified at the Philadelphia School in the United States and was appointed to the Aberdeen Royal Hospital for mental patients where she worked until her retirement in 1963. During that time, she gained an international reputation for her department and for her part in the development of both the Scottish Association (SAOT) and the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT).
Octavia Hill 1838-1912
This remarkable woman can lay claim to having founded amongst others, the National Trust, the modern concepts of social work and housing associations, the Green Belt around London and the Army Cadet movement. Octavia believed passionately that ‘the poor should never be denied beauty, simply through accident of birth’; and she therefore encouraged music, art and drama in all her projects. Perhaps above all she believed in the life-enhancing virtues of ‘pure earth, clean air and blue sky’.
Her strong connection with occupational therapy comes through her influence on the young Elizabeth Casson who she employed to manage Red Cross community hall where the ‘tired inhabitants of Southwark’ enjoyed theatrical performances, concerts and poetry readings and the haven of Red Cross Garden, one of Octavia’s ‘open air sitting rooms’, with pond, fountain, meandering paths, benches and flowers. Recently restored to its Victorian glory.
Dr Elizabeth Casson OBE MD DPM 1881-1954
Born in Denbigh, North Wales, she later moved to London with her musical and artistic family. From 1908-1913, she worked under Octavia Hill at Red Cross Hall, Southwark before deciding to train as a doctor and ultimately becoming an eminent psychiatrist and winner of the Gaskell Prize in 1927.
In 1929 she established her own residential clinic in Bristol, Dorset House, for ‘women with mental disorders’, and worked as its medical director. It was here in 1930 that she founded the first school of occupational therapy in the UK, Dorset House, The Promenade, Clifton. Its first Principal was Constance Tebbit (later Owens) who returned from training as an occupational therapist in Philadelphia to take up her post. She later went on to set up the Liverpool School of Occupational Therapy.
In 1951 Dr Casson was awarded the OBE for her work and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists. In 1973 the Dr Elizabeth Casson annual memorial lecture was established and the Elizabeth Casson rose was created to mark the 50th anniversary of her death and launched at Chelsea Flower Show in 2005.
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