Zina Moncrieff was a consultant paediatrician and head of paediatrics at the Royal Free Hospital, London. She was born in the Orkney Isles in Scotland, the daughter of George Moncrieff, a schoolmaster, and Jemima Williamina Moncrieff née Spence. She was educated at Drumlithie School and Mackie Academy, and then studied medicine at Aberdeen University. She had a distinguished academic record, winning prizes in paediatrics, psychiatry, medicine and surgery. She qualified in 1938.

She was a house physician and house surgeon at the Royal Aberdeen Hospital for Sick Children, and then held house posts at the Royal Northern Hospital. She was subsequently a house physician and registrar at Guy’s Hospital, based at Pembury Hospital. She then became a clinical assistant at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. She gained her diploma in child health in 1942 and her MRCP in 1944.

From 1942 to 1945 she was a paediatrician at St Anthony’s Hospital. In 1945, she was appointed as a physician in the children’s department at the Royal Free Hospital, and at the Princess Louise Hospital for Sick Children. A year later, she also joined the staff of the Mildmay Mission Hospital as a paediatrician. She subsequently became head of paediatrics at the Royal Free.

She wrote papers on acute aleukaemic lymphatic leukaemia, BCG vaccination, thyroid dysfunction in children, morbilliform rashes and the management of Down’s syndrome.

Outside medicine, she enjoyed painting, interior decorating, riding, fishing, travelling and reading.

In 1941 she married Frederick Patrick FitzGerald, an orthopaedic surgeon. They had a son (Richard), a daughter (Susanna) and four grandchildren (Felicity, Christian, Charlie and Robin).

RCP editor