A pioneer of mental health treatment in Brighton and Hove is being honoured with the unveiling of a commemorative blue plaque at Aldrington House, Hove on Monday 7 September at 11am.
Dr Helen Boyle (1869-1957) was Brighton’s first woman GP and her ground-breaking approach to treating mental illness changed the lives of countless working class women in Brighton and Hove.
As well as working in general practice, Dr Boyle co-founded the Lewes Road Dispensary for Women and Children in Hanover, and later opened the Lewes Road Hospital in Roundhill Crescent, Brighton specifically for the treatment of working class women with early stage mental illness.
This hospital became known as the Lady Chichester Hospital and later transferred to Aldrington House in Hove, the site of the blue plaque honouring Dr Boyle’s achievements.
Dr Boyle was also the first woman president of the Medico-Psychological Association (now the Royal College of Psychiatrists) and the first female consultant psychiatrist at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
The plaque will be unveiled by the Mayor of Brighton and Hove Lynda Hyde at a short celebration ceremony.
No doubt a worthy person in many ways but these blue plaques that are currently being put up across the city are starting to look unnecessary. They are also unsightly on listed buildings. The city is now cluttered with the recent batch of spurious plaques to relative nobodies. Who wants them there anyway – indeed did the people on the plaques actually want them? There is absolutely no public outcry to have these people honoured. Spend the money on services for the sick people, that is probably what Dr Boyle would have wanted anyway.