As a celebrated doctor and educator, many of Margaret Davidson’s students were left so inspired they stayed on to work with her after.
Through decades of service to medicine, she helped change the lives of scores of people with engaging teaching and innovative practices.
Dr Davidson was born in Aberdeen on April 5, 1931.
Part of a farming family, she spent her childhood on her family’s land near Balmedie, attending Foveran Primary School then Aberdeen Central School.
In her late teens, Dr Davidson’s parents separated, and she left the farm with her mother, moving into a single room in Aberdeen.
Despite the upheaval in her life, she continued to focus on her studies and passed the entry exam for Aberdeen University’s medical faculty in 1949.
She graduated six years later, completing her training at Royal Aberdeen Hospital for Sick Children and maternity hospitals in Helensburgh and Dumbarton.
Dr Davidson returned to Aberdeen in 1957 and joined what is now Elmbank Medical Practice, where she became a full partner in the early 1960s.
After two decades she left and became a senior clinical medical officer at Raeden Assessment Centre For Children.
In the mid-80s she took up a similar post with the Grampian health board children’s team, based at Queen’s Gate, Aberdeen.
Part of the job involved developing training courses for other staff across the north-east.
One former colleague said her work was so engaging that many of Dr Davidson’s students would instead stay on to work with her.
Later, she helped establish a scheme to better serve those in more rural and deprived parts of the region, by sending a “huge” mobile van to assess children, provide immunisations and help families.
Dr Davidson also wrote a piece for the Evening Express in October 1988 about the mobile clinic, saying advances in healthcare had improved living standards and helped young people be “more robust and freer from disease.”
But she was aware further progress was required, saying: “We cannot be complacent however, since within our society there are still pockets of deprivation.”
Around that time, she was also named an honorary member of staff at Aberdeen University, within its school of medicine, medical science and nutrition.
Upon retirement, Dr Davidson was able to pursue her love of travel, exploring the world in search of good food and wine.
She made several trips to New Zealand and France with members of her extended family, and many other journeys with long-time friends and colleagues from her time at work.
Dr Davidson’s family said, in the last few years, she had lost “much” of her mobility but “until very recently” she was still dedicated to helping a new generation of medical students.
Many would drop by to see her when she visited her GP as part of research into the physical and mental impact of the loss of independence.
Dr Davidson died peacefully at home on February 25, aged 89.