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Emeritus Consultants Biographies
Ida Mann was born in London in 1893, the daughter of F.W.Mann and Ellen nee Packham. She received her medical training at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London. The major part of her professional career was spent in England where she was recognised as a leader in the field of ophthalmology. Her achievements included a personal chair at Oxford University and an appointment as Senior Surgeon at Moorfield's Eye Hospital, London. She was also a Consultant to the World Health Organisation in its section on communicable diseases. In 1950, she came to Western Australia with her husband in 1950. She was appointed to the Honorary Staff of the Royal Perth Hospital as an Ophthalmic Surgeon in 1950 and was made a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon in 1957. Ida was an enthusiastic field worker and did many expeditions to study eye problems in the Aboriginal population. She found a high incidence of trachoma among Aborigines and isolated and cultured the organism in Australia. This work brought relief from the illness to thousands and world renown for Dame Mann. Ida Mann was still doing bush trips when she was well into her 60s. On these trips she always insisted on doing her share. She had no hesitation in sleeping out on the ground, which was more than some of the senior officers accompanying her were prepared to do. Dame Mann wrote many scientific papers and she also wrote two books which were travelogues based on her own experiences, under the pen name of Caroline Gye. Ida Mann died in 1984. The dedication in a leading ophthalmology journal reads: "No living doctor has dominated international ophthalmology as has Ida Mann, whose colleagues throughout the world have been inspired by her remarkable work". |
