Dorothy Price

Dorothy Stopford Price
Dorothy Price at Meath Hospital
Born	Dorothy Stopford 8 September 1890 Dublin, Ireland
Died	30 January 1954 (aged 63) Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Occupation	Physician
Known for	BCG Vaccine

Dorothy Stopford Price (8 September 1890 – 30 January 1954) was an Irish physician who was key to the elimination of childhood tuberculosis in Ireland by introducing the BCG vaccine.

Dorothy Stopford's father, Jemmett Stopford, was descended from a long line of Church of Ireland clerics. Her mother, Constance Kennedy, also a Protestant, whose father was Dr Evory Kennedy, a master of the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, from 1833–40. Her aunt was Irish nationalist historian Alice Stopford Green.

The Stopfords had four children: Alice, Edie, Dorothy and Robert. The births of the children are registered at different addresses in south Dublin. In 1887 they were living at Roebuck Lodge, Dundrum, in 1890 at Newstead, Clonskeagh, and in 1895 at 28 Highfield Road, Rathgar.

Jemmett Stopford died from typhoid fever in 1902, and the medical costs incurred in his illness left the family so badly off that Constance Kennedy had to sell the family home of Wyvern in Bushy Park Road in Terenure, Rathfarnham. The family relocated to 65 Campden Gardens, West Kensington, London.

She lived through two World Wars, the Spanish Influenza pandemic, the 1916 Rising in Ireland, and the foundation of a new Irish state. She was brought up as a child of the British Empire, living first in Dublin and later in London. She spent Easter 1916 as a guest of Sir Matthew Nathan, the British Under-Secretary. While residing there, she had a unique view of the Easter Rising as seen by the British administration in Ireland. Her Easter 1916 diary is in the Irish National Library, Dublin. After the Rising, she began to question her political allegiances and embraced Irish nationalism.

Dorothy first began her education by working with the Charitable Organisation Society, where she studied a form of social science. She also passed an examination to study Art, Design and Ornamentation in the Regent Street Polytechnic. She sat a further exam which gave her the opportunity to enter the Royal College of Art, but did not do so.

She ultimately decided to study medicine at age 25, and was a medical student in Trinity College Dublin from 1916 to 1921. She graduated with a BA in 1920, BAO (Bachelor in Midwifery), BCh (Bachelor in Surgery) and MB in 1921. As part of her training she worked in the Meath Hospital, Dublin, as a clinical clerk. In 1918-19, she witnessed the Spanish flu at first hand. She tended to victims during the day and cycled to the mortuary at night to carry out post mortems.