Wendy Greengross | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1925-04-29)29 April 1925 Golders Green, London, UK |
| Died | 10 October 2012(2012-10-10) (aged 87) |
| Spouse | Alex Kates |
| Children | 5 |
Wendy Elsa Greengross (29 April 1925 – 10 October 2012) was a Britishgeneral practitioner and broadcaster.The Independent called her "a pioneering counsellor and one of the leading figures in fighting for equal rights for the disabled and the elderly".[1]
Wendy Elsa Greengross was born on 29 April 1925, at 10 St Mary's Road,Golders Green, London, the daughter of Morris Philip Greengross, born Moisze Fiszel Gringross (1892–1970), a manufacturing jeweller, and his wife, Miriam Greengross, née Abrahamson (1899/1900–1968).[2]
Her father was mayor ofHolborn from 1960 to 1961, and her brotherSir Alan Greengross (born 1929) was a leading Conservative member of theGreater London Council.[2]
Greengross was educated atSouth Hampstead High School from 1936 until she was evacuated toBerkhamsted, Hertfordshire, followed byUniversity College Hospital, where she qualified as a doctor in 1949, and in 1952 won aFulbright Scholarship to theChicago Lying-in Hospital.[2]
Together with her husband, Greengross ran a large general practice inTottenham, London.[1] Opened in 1955, it was one of the UK's first group practices.[3] She particularly promotedfamily planning, and they were the country's first GP practice to have a dedicatedmarriage guidance.[1] Greengross worked as a GP for 35 years.[1]
Greengross received counsellor training from theMarriage Guidance Council (now Relate), and would go on to become its Chief Medical Adviser.[1] In the late 1960s, Greengross started teaching pastoral care and counselling atLeo Baeck College.[2]
Greengross went into broadcasting in the early 1970s, joining theBBC Radio 4 counselling programmeIf You Think You've Got Problems, which ran for nearly eight years.[4] She had her own television show on BBC1 in 1973,Let's Talk it Over.[4]
From 1972 to 1976, Greengross was anagony aunt forThe Sun, but "felt the letters passed to her were more about titillation than education".[4]
Greengross wroteJewish and Homosexual, published in 1980, by theReform Synagogues of Great Britain, which "led the way towards equality within the British Reform and Liberal movements".[2] Greengross published several sex education books, particularly focused on more marginalised groups, such asSex and the Handicapped Child in 1980.[2]
Greengross was a founding member and chair of the organisationSexual Problems of Disabled People (SPOD), and a founder of theResidential Care Consortium.[2]
In 1951, she married a surgeon, Alex Kates, and they had five children.[1]
Greengross had two daughters, Hilary and Polly, and three sons Nick, Richard, and Trevor (d. 1997).
Greengross lived for many years inHampstead Garden Suburb, before a retirement flat inRegent's Park Road, where she died on 10 October 2012 of pneumonia.[2] She was buried atCheshunt's Jewish Cemetery.[2]
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