Dr Lavinia Loughridge, MB BCh BAO (1930 – 2014)

Lavinia Loughridge studied medicine at Queen’s, graduating with First Class Honours in 1954 and winning many prizes. After graduation she worked at Hammersmith Hospital and later became the first female consultant at Westminster Hospital in London, where she specialised in nephrology and general medicine.

Dr Loughridge was involved in the first renal transplant programme and the early use of artificial dialysis machines, and contributed to several research papers on these subjects, including  “Renal Transplantation in man”, (BMJ 1963) which described the use of immunosuppressants to prevent the rejection of donor kidneys. 

She was also a dedicated and popular teacher of medical students and young physicians and was described by one of her colleagues as “one of the most outstanding physicians of her generation”.

She became assistant dean for medical admissions at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and was Vice President and Senior Censor of the Royal College of Physicians between 1993 and 1995, which she regarded as a huge honour and privilege.

After retirement from the NHS in 1995 Dr Loughridge continued to see patients at the Cromwell Hospital, and enjoyed being able to practise the piano and share her love of music, art and travel with her second husband, Professor John Bunker, who died in 2012.

She always enjoyed returning to Belfast, where she gave a talk on “Renal Failure – Then and Now” for the Ulster Medical Society in 1983, and attended medical graduates’ reunions at Queen’s whenever she could.  

Lavinia Loughridge is survived by her daughter Juliet, a former opera singer, her son Jonathan, a consultant gastroenterologist, and her two grandchildren.

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