The fascinating life and career of Dr Mable Yates
Dr Mable Yates graduated from Leeds Medical School in 1956 and went on to work as a GP before becoming Principal Clinical Medical Officer of East Leeds.
She played a key role in developing the children’s audiology service here in Leeds as well as offering her expertise in various voluntary roles. Following retirement she spent 15 years working at the tribunal service. At her home in north Leeds we meet and discuss her fascinating and varied career…
Mable grew up on a farm near Allerton with her parents and older brother. Her mother threatened young Mable with the prospect of being carted off to boarding school if she didn’t pass her 11+ exams. Thankfully she did well and attended the local grammar school. When asked about her decision to study medicine, she replied that her best friend wanted to study medicine and she thought that’s “probably not a bad idea”. So off she went to Leeds Medical School supported by the very prestigious state scholarship. She was the first of her family to attend university and the total cost of studying medicine was absolutely nothing.
During her time at Leeds she tells me that she was one of only 13 female students out of a cohort of around 80; very different to the current demographics where female students made up 59% of admissions to medical school in the UK in 2017 (1). There were also no female consultants at the LGI during her training; the only woman consultant was an obstetrician in the now defunct women’s hospital. I ponder the effect this absence of female role models must have had and she replies, “the glass ceiling was concrete in my day”, with only one woman from her year group making consultant status. Her memories of medical school are the enormous amount of anatomy, intimidating consultants and carrying out experiments on fellow students — one such experiment involved inserting a nasogastric tube to aspirate stomach contents. Outside of medicine, Mable enjoyed various sporting pursuits, representing the university in cricket and badminton, and once in tennis, when the cricket was cancelled.
At 21 she married her late husband Derek, a joiner who later became an environmental health officer. Whilst working a night shift as a house officer, staying in the on call room in what is now the Thackray museum, she remembers Derek being shaken awake in the middle of the night by the night sister who assumed he must be the doctor. “I think you’ve got it wrong”, she told the sister, getting out of bed and grabbing her stethoscope.
Following graduation Dr. Yates decided to work in general practice whilst raising two sons, Andrew and Stewart, who both decided to become doctors too. She worked in Halton and Hunslet, and recalls seeing over 70 patients one morning. As if that didn’t keep her busy enough, she also volunteered for St George’s Crypt, offering health checks to the homeless, and as the medical officer for an amateur swimming association, which included a trip to Czechoslovakia.
After 10 years she was ready for a new challenge and went to work for the local authority in child health. It was during this time she became interested in developing an innovative audiology service as she felt children with hearing impairments were being treated inadequately. The hearing assessments at the time were apparently a “bit primitive” involving one consultant shaking a set of keys in front of the child and declaring whether or not they could hear. The set of hearing cards she developed for the East Leeds Audiology service objectively improved hearing tests, they never missed a child with a hearing impairment, yet according to Mable the general assessment was still “more art than science”.
Alongside her role in the NHS, Dr. Yates was a chairperson for a committee of community health doctors at the British Medical Association. After many years of hard work and dedication to the health service, she retired when East and West Leeds merged into one local authority. She then worked for the tribunal service for 15 years, only stepping down at the age of 75. Mable currently enjoys spending time with friends and family including six grandchildren and two great grandchildren, gardening and growing delicious vegetables!
Jennifer Bradshaw, Year 4, MBChB
References: (1)Moberly, T. (2018). Number of women entering medical school rises after decade of decline. The BMJ, (360), p.167.
