Dr Peter Lionel Carr Diggory (6 January 1924 – 22 November 2009) was an English gynaecologist and one of the first to support calls for the legalisation ofabortion in the United Kingdom. He was the central medical figure in theAbortion Law Reform Association in the 1960s and medical adviser toDavid Steel'sPrivate Member's Bill that became theAbortion Act 1967.[1]
Diggory was born inTitley,Herefordshire. Diagnosis withpolio as a child interrupted Diggory's schooling, but he went on to attendRoyal Grammar School Worcester. He studied mathematics atUniversity College London, leading to work withC. P. Snow on the development ofradar in theSecond World War. After the war, he studied medicine atUniversity College Hospital, where he met his future wife, Patricia (died 2002), with whom he had two children.
He became a consultant gynaecologist at Queen Charlotte's and Westminster hospitals, where he came to support legalising abortion. At Kingston hospital, where he was appointed a consultant in 1961, he was responsible the care of the 400 women admitted each year suffering from the complications arising from illegal abortions. In a study published inThe Lancet, based on 1,000 histories, he was able to demonstrate the potential safety of abortion.[2] David Steel's Private Member's Bill was introduced to Parliament in 1966 and Diggory was involved in the campaign supporting it.
He later became a consultant at The Royal Marsden and Kingston hospitals, specialising in cancer surgery.
His books includedAbortion (co-written withMalcolm Potts and John Peel, 1977) and the second edition ofTextbook of Contraceptive Practice (co-written with Potts, 1983; long the key textbook in the field).
In his final years, he had vasculardementia and he would die of heart failure.[3]
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