Dr Muriel Elizabeth Sidaway FRCP Edin, MRCP London, FRCRad
Dr Muriel Elizabeth Sidaway FRCP Edin, MRCP London, FRCRad
Born 22nd June 1924 in Old Hill, Staffordshire
Died 26th June 2024 in London, aged 100
A Cambridge physics graduate who then qualified in medicine in Birmingham in 1949 and, in a series of firsts for women, worked in chest medicine then transferred to radiology and became a pioneer in invasive investigations, including coronary arteriography.
Muriel Sidaway was born in Old Hill in the heart of the Black Country, west of Birmingham. Her father was an accountant and early car enthusiast and her mother, a teacher. When the family moved to the more rural fringes of Halesowen, Muriel discovered a love of nature and the outdoors on long walks and bike rides with her younger brother George. She attended Dudley Girls High School, and from there went to study physics, at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating in 1944. Advised against continuing a career in physics on the grounds that she might not fit in with the Communist ethos of the Cambridge Physics department, she went to work as a physiology demonstrator at King’s College, London, before going to study medicine at Birmingham University Medical School. She returned to London in 1949 as a House Physician in the London Chest Hospital, the first woman doctor ever to work there. As there was no female accommodation, she lodged at the local vicarage - she liked to tell the tale of being licked awake on her first morning by the vicar’s Labrador.
In 1951 she worked as a Resident Medical Officer at the Connaught Hospital in East London, again the first woman doctor there. A reference from the Medical Director states that despite their initial misgivings in employing a woman, they were surprised to find her to be an exemplary physician and couldn’t recommend her highly enough. In 1952 as a Medical Registrar at Hackney Hospital, she met Cyril Sheridan, who was later to become her husband. He went into General Practice in Edmonton in northeast London. From 1954 Muriel worked for 2 years at the Edgware Chest Clinic in respiratory medicine, largely at that time tuberculosis. As well as becoming adept at interpreting chest radiographs, she learned to perform bronchoscopy, bronchograms and artificial pneumothorax (then a common and partially effective TB treatment). She passed the MRCP of both Edinburgh and London Colleges in 1956.
Given her background in physics, radiology must have seemed an obvious choice of specialty,. She trained at St Bartholomew’s, UCL and Great Ormond St Hospitals. She was active in research and enterprising in developing techniques for visualising internal organs in the era before CT and ultrasound. At UCL, this included gynaecography – using pneumo-peritoneum to study the ovaries. She became expert in arteriography, angiocardiography and paediatric genito-urinary radiology. She gained a particular interest in developing cine radiography across a range of clinical areas, including GI barium studies, cystograms and angiocardiography. In 1964 she was appointed consultant radiologist at Charing Cross Hospital.
She was in 1961 the first woman Fellow of the Faculty of Radiologists (later the Royal College of Radiologists) and was elected FRCPE in 1971. She was also a member of the British Institute of Radiology, regularly presenting at their Annual Congress. She spent time at the Karolinska Hospital, Sweden, on a Wellcome grant. Throughout her career, she enjoyed working with other disciplines and loved to mentor trainees and teach, using her extensive catalogue of images.
In 1966 she travelled to the USA to learn the emerging technique of coronary angiography. This had been discovered by accident in 1958 by the cardiologist, Mason Sones, inadvertently introducing contrast medium directly into a patient’s right coronary artery and finding that not only was this not fatal, but that it enabled clear visualisation of the vessels . This had made possible the development of coronary bypass surgery and stenting. Muriel went to the Cleveland Clinic to learn directly from Dr Sones himself. He took Muriel under his wing, proving an excellent teacher. After mastering the technique, she returned to introduce it in Charing Cross. The cardiologist Aubrey Leatham had performed the first one in Europe in 1963, but Muriel was almost certainly the first woman to do it in the UK.
In the 1980s, not yet ready to retire and looking for a new challenge, she set up a private radiology practice in Harley Street with colleagues, stopping in the late 1990s when the shift towards more costly diagnostic equipment and rising rents made the practice unviable. Still not ready for retirement, in addition to studying with Cyril for a Diploma in Art History at Birkbeck College, she embarked on a career as an expert witness. Her experience in examining plain films from non-accidental injury cases in her Gt Ormond Street days meant she was much in demand in criminal cases, in addition to the more run-of-the-mill negligence reports . She continued to write reports and even appear in court into her nineties.
Outside Medicine she was keen skier, only stopping aged 93 when she had to start taking anticoagulants for atrial fibrillation. She was known as a snappy dresser, keeping up with the latest fashions – which early on meant making the clothes herself in the evenings. An intrepid traveller and Europhile, she also enjoyed hill walking, ice skating, and loved ballet, opera and the theatre and was an avid gardener, cook and raconteur with a wide circle of friends. Muriel could talk happily with almost anyone, was always interested in people, irrespective of their background, and had a special knack for putting people at ease to the extent that complete strangers had frequently volunteered their entire life history and all their troubles, within minutes of meeting her. A great animal lover, she owned a string of rescue dogs, developing a fondness for lurchers in her later years.
Cyril died in 2013. Muriel is survived by her daughter, Liz, a Consultant Microbiologist.
Liz Sheridan
Anthony Seaton