My mother, Patricia Dale, who has died aged 103, was a trailblazing doctor, activist and socialist who became general secretary of the Medical Practitioners’ Union and drew on her expertise in industrial health to speak out against the expansion of Stansted airport in the early 2000s.
Born in Southampton, to Clemency (nee Wharton) and Cyrus Lloyd, a merchant seaman, Pat had a childhood shaped by the loss of her mother to TB when she was nine years old. Her father then married a wealthy widow who was keen for Pat to become a debutante. However, Pat insisted on leaving home to study medicine at University College London, one of only a few women to do so at the time.
