Doctor specialising in child welfare
Born: July 5, 1921;
Died: December 15, 2016
CECILIA (Celia) May Brebner, who has died aged 95, was a doctor who specialised in child welfare and developed a clinic at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow specialising in the problems of families with adopted children.
The daughter of Albert and Helen Smellie, she was born in Pendleton in Lancashire, and after attending Quaker boarding school in Ackworth, she studied medicine at Manchester University from 1939 to 1944, graduating BSc in anatomy in 1942 and MB ChB in 1944.
After graduation, she became house physician to the professor of medicine in Manchester Royal Infirmary followed by a year working in the clinical laboratory. In 1947 she became house physician in the Shadwell branch of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in London, situated in the East End. While in London, she met her Aberdonian husband Hugh whom she married in 1951. Soon afterwards, they moved to Manchester, where their children Caroline and John were born.
In January 1956 Hugh was appointed consultant physician at the Western Infirmary Glasgow, and in April of that year the twins Helen and Anne arrived. As a mother of four, Dr Brebner was fully occupied for several years at home.
In Glasgow, she started medical work again on a part-time basis in child welfare clinics. Having discovered that part-time work was not possible as a paediatrician in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow (RHSC), she embarked on a new career in child and family psychiatry in the department run by Professor Fred Stone. She also had a weekly session at the Lansdowne Clinic for adult psychotherapy.
After a number of years, she developed the clinic in the RHSC specialising in the problems of families with adopted children, and in her 50s was invited to undertake a study of the subject funded by the Scottish Home and Health department. This entailed visits to family homes over a wide area in Glasgow and surrounding districts. The report was entitled Risk Factors in Adoption.
Some material drawn from that study was the basis of her book published by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). She was also involved in voluntary work as medical adviser to the Barnardo’s New Families project and served on the national committee of BAAF.
After retirement, she remained active in the Medical Women’s Federation serving for a year as president of the West of Scotland branch.
Away from medicine, Dr Brebner was interested in art and attended classes in Bearsden and Aberfoyle. She was a member of the Bearsden Art Club and exhibited her work at the Lillie Galleries in Milngavie.
In her retirement, while living in Drymen, she joined the undergraduate class in English Literature at Stirling University. However, her main interest was the care of her four children followed by nine grandchildren (all born between 1980 and 1989).
From about the year 2000, her health was steadily impaired by loss of vision and several falls with various fractures which she bore with great fortitude. She also had the added disability of progressive Alzheimer’s Disease, which caused her death.
She is survived by her husband Hugh, her four children, nine grandchildren and her three great-grandchildren.
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