Margery Blackie

Margery Grace Blackie CVO (4 February 1898 – 24 August 1981) was a British doctor who later changed to homeopathy and became homeopath to Queen Elizabeth II.

Margery Grace Blackie was born at Redbourn, Hertfordshire, on 4 February 1898, the youngest of ten children of Robert Blackie (c.1852–1936), who was independently wealthy, and his wife, Elizabeth (d. 1941), daughter of Rowland Rees, the civil engineer and Mayor of Brighton. Her uncle, by marriage, was James Compton-Burnett, a noted Homeopathic Doctor. His daughter, the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett was a first cousin. In 1911 the family moved to London, and she was educated at the Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls in Acton.

She studied medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women, and qualified as a doctor in 1923. In 1924, she joined the staff at the London Homeopathic Hospital. In 1928, she received her MD from the University of London, where she was the only woman candidate.

In 1926, encouraged by her closest friend, Dr Helena Banks, she set up her own practice at Drayton Gardens, London, by reopening a homeopathic dispensary that had been closed for 12 years.

In 1929, together with Helena Banks, she moved to a practice in a large six-storey house at 18 Thurloe Square, South Kensington, London, where she was to remain until 1980, a year before her death. They were both ardent Christians, and for thirty years Banks was her "partner and intimate friend".

At the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, Blackie was as assistant physician in the Children's Department from 1929 to 1937, an assistant physician from 1927 to 1957, and senior consultant physician from 1957 to 1966.

Blackie was the first homeopath to treat Queen Elizabeth II, from 1968 onwards. Other patients included Lady Julia Namier.

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