UK: Obituaries for Peter Diggory

Malcolm Potts, writing in the Guardian, pays his respects to this pioneering obstetrician/gynaecologist. Dilys Cossey adds a personal note.

Peter Diggory, who has died aged 85, was a talented and concerned obstetrician/gynaecologist who served generations of women at the Kingston hospital, Surrey, and the Royal Marsden hospital in London. In his quest for modern family planning and safe abortion he also helped establish policies and practices that helped millions of women around the world who would never know his name, but for whom he had helped open a door on the fundamental right to decide whether, and when, to have a child.

Diggory was born in Titley, Herefordshire, the son of a stationmaster and the youngest of five children. He won a scholarship to Worcester Royal grammar school and earned his first graduate degree, in mathematics, from University College London. After graduating he was drafted to join a team of young researchers developing radar. At the end of the second world war he returned to UCL for a second degree, in medicine. Diggory was elected president of the British Medical Student Association, played chess for the university, and began his postgraduate training, first becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and then of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

In the 1960s, criminal abortion cases were not routinely admitted to the Queen Charlotte’s hospital, where Diggory trained, and doctors were not examined on contraception or abortion. When he was appointed the NHS consultant gynaecologist at Kingston hospital in 1961 he found himself ill-prepared to care for the 400 women admitted annually because of complications resulting from illegal abortions. Under a law dating from 1861, even the intention to perform an abortion was a felony, and so this huge area of reproductive health was simply ignored.

From 1938 the legal precedent set by the Bourne case enabled doctors to terminate the unintended pregnancies of women whose mental health could be shown to be at risk; in practice this applied only to those who could afford to pay a psychiatrist as well as a gynaecologist, and abortion remained outside mainstream medicine. Diggory had a Harley Street practice beside his NHS work and he alone had the integrity to publish his clinical findings. In a landmark paper on 1,000 cases, published in the Lancet, he showed that abortion could be clinically and emotionally safe.

While the president and the majority of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists fellows opposed reforming the 1861 law, Peter had the courage to join the Abortion Law Reform Association. I still remember his stunning speech at the 1966 Family Planning Association Conference on Abortion in Britain. It was the first time an experienced gynaecologist had talked openly about abortion. He compared the rich women getting safe private operations with the poor women admitted to an NHS hospital whose neighbours had injected soap, whisky or even toothpaste into the uterus.

A few months later, the young Liberal MP David (now Lord) Steel introduced a private member’s bill to reform the 1861 law. Diggory co-piloted this revolutionary step, attending every committee discussion for the next 17 months. His clinical experience had taught him that most abortions are for social reasons, and he worked closely with Steel to ensure social indications for abortions were included in the new law.

British abortion reform had a domino effect in India, Singapore, Zambia, Australia and the US, giving Diggory’s leadership in contraception and safe abortion an international impact. He attended international meetings and published widely, including co-authoring two books, Abortion (1977) and Textbook of Contraceptive Practice (1983).

Diggory’s life was characterised by an unalloyed kindness and generosity. He married Patricia McConnell in 1952. They shared an interest in the theatre, especially the fringe, and were trustees of the children’s theatre company Quicksilver. In addition to their two children, Paul and Jane, Peter and Patricia had an extended family of close younger friends. Even vagrants knew that the Diggorys’ house in Campden Hill Square, west London, would supply food and help. The same gentle warmth that drove Diggory to champion safe abortion also made him support the Voluntary Euthanasia Society. Poignantly, his last years were burdened with diabetes and vascular dementia – but even when he could not remember what he had had for breakfast, he could still play an excellent game of chess. Patricia died in 2002. Peter is survived by Paul and Jane.

• Peter Lionel Carr Diggory, obstetrician and gynaecologist, born 6 January 1924; died 22 November 2009

This obituary was published in the Guardian: Gynaecologist at the forefront of abortion reform, by Malcolm Potts, 4 January 2010

Dilys Cossey, secretary of the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) 1964-68, writes:

Malcolm’s obituary of Peter Diggory captures the man perfectly – his intellectual ability, his warmth and generosity and his professional and personal commitment to abolishing the scourge of illegal abortion and giving women reproductive choice. 

Malcolm’s words about Peter are a reminder of the strong personalities of the 1960s abortion law reformers – the ‘pioneers of change’, as the BPAS publication issued to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act calls them – and of their dedication to the campaign to change the law. 

In his contribution to Pioneers of Change, Peter describes his original, ground-breaking research at Kingston Hospital, to which Malcolm refers.  Of specific relevance today is Peter’s comment: ‘The Abortion Act was a highly successful piece of social legislation… It is easy to take its benefits for granted since medical students and doctors no longer see cases of criminal abortion and it is hard for them to realise what a degrading and dangerous thing it used to be’. 

His concluding sentence reads: ‘Personally I remain grateful that ALRA and David Steel allowed me to help change our law’.  We should all remain grateful to Peter Diggory.

Peter Diggory was interviewed for the 2007 BPAS publication Abortion Law Reformers: Pioneers of Change. These frank interviews with many of the campaigners, doctors and parliamentarians who brought the 1967 Abortion Act into being provide an inspiring sense of the spirit in which the Act was conceived and thoughtful reflections on how well the law has worked subsequently. Download it for free here.