1918-2012.

Muriel E. H. Davis (nee Goose) died on the 14 December 2012. She was born in London and moved to Birmingham as a child, where she attended Kings Norton Grammar School. A hard working student, she entered Birmingham Dental School and qualified with an LDS in 1941. She was not allowed to do a BDS because she was a woman. She married a medical contemporary, Ben T. Davis. After joining the RAMC Ben was away for most of the next four years. Muriel was determined to be independent. She worked in general practice and continued to do sessions in the dental hospital developing an interest in orthodontics and joining the British Society for the Study of Orthodontia (BSSO) in 1946. She was impressed with the approach of Professor Sheldon Friel, the first Professor in Orthodontics in Europe, who campaigned for greater specialisation in the subject. In 1947 she went to Dublin to study with him for her D. Orth. She returned to Birmingham a year later, continued her training and, in 1957, was appointed as the first woman consultant. She worked in three Birmingham hospitals and did clinics in other parts of the Midlands, travelling as far away as Hereford. She was on the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board, where she campaigned hard for the development of orthodontic services. Having a particular interest in facial growth, she worked on developing feeding plates for cleft palate babies. She is warmly remembered by her many patients to this day.

Encouraged by Ben, who by then was a well known forensic pathologist and medical historian, Muriel stood successfully for election as President of the Odontological Section at the Birmingham Medical Institute in 1970/71.

She retired from full-time work in 1978. Not long afterwards her job was divided into two. Muriel set out to acquire the degree that she had been denied in her youth by completing a BA in Humanities in 1981. She was passionate about Renaissance art and became very knowledgeable. She and Ben enjoyed life together and travelled extensively in pursuit of their many interests until his death in 1998. Muriel is survived by their three daughters and six grandchildren.