Mary Starbuck
Eye surgeon who helped to bring up-to-date ophthalmic skills to local hospitals in rural Africa
MARY STARBUCK, who has died aged 87, blazed a trail in the largely male world of eye surgery. Open, confident, well organised, energetic and efficient, she became a consultant at 33, in 1961, and a senior fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmic Surgeons when it was formed in 1988. For much of her career she was based in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
She also took unpaid leave at intervals to be one of a rotating group of surgeons with Sight by Wings, the first charity to bring up-to-date ophthalmic skills to parts of rural Africa. This was at a time when large numbers of Africans were blind or partially sighted as a result of conditions that could easily be treated if they occurred in Britain. Mary Starbuck would complete prodigious numbers of operations in local hospitals. In some cases the plane would even buzz a grass airstrip to clear the animals and on occasions she even operated in a tent, with the instruments sterilised over a Primus stove.
Mary Joan Starbuck was born on April 16 1928. Blessed with great intelligence and a phenomenal memory, she was the first in her family to go to university in 1947, at a time when very few women did. She graduated in Medicine, passed her MBBS in 1952 at King’s College London and then worked as a junior doctor at King’s College Hospital. She passed her FRCS exam in 1959, before taking up her consultant post in Canterbury, where she built up the ophthalmology department and then also took on responsibility for ophthalmic departments in other local hospitals.
She had a particular expertise in treating squints. She worked primarily for the NHS but also ran a private practice from her home, which was adjacent to the hospital.
At different times she served as president of the Southern Ophthalmologists and as regional representative to the Council of the Faculty of Ophthalmology. Unusually for a provincial consultant, she was an examiner in the Diploma of Ophthalmology of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1981 until her retirement in 1987.
Despite her commitment to her work she found time to play golf and was twice the lady captain of Canterbury Golf Club. She was also an active Christian as part of the community of her local church, St Mary Bredin, and enjoyed gardening. She was the President of the Canterbury Soroptimists from 1984 to 1985.
After retirement, she took an Art History degree, travelled frequently in search of antiquities, art and architecture, and became a member of the Garden History Society.
She also became a guide at Canterbury Cathedral and bought a flat in southern Spain, which she visited regularly and allowed her family to use.
Mary Starbuck was unmarried and is survived by her older sister, Maggie Burnham, and her two nephews, John and Michael Burnham. Mary Starbuck, born April 16 1928, died January 15 2016