>Monkbot at 18:26, 16 December 2020

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{{short description|British physician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2020}}

{{Infobox person
| name = Charlotte Leighton Houlton
| honorific_suffix = [[CBE]], [[Doctor of Medicine|MD]], [[FRCOG]]
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1882|10|23|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Hull
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1956|12|13|1882|10|23|df=yes}}
| death_place = Whitby
| occupation = Physician, medical administrator
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
| honours = [[Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]] (1927)
}}

'''Charlotte Leighton Houlton''' [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (23 October 1882 – 13 December 1956) was a British physician.

== Early life ==
Charlotte Leighton Houlton was born in [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]] in [[Yorkshire]], one of the ten children of John Houlton and Charlotte Leighton Houlton. She was educated at the [[London School of Medicine for Women]] and the [[Royal Free Hospital]] in London, earning her medical degree in 1917.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Chattopadhyay, Anjana|url=https://nbtindia.gov.in/writereaddata/freebooks/pdf/Women%20Scientists%20in%20India.pdf|title=Women scientists in India : lives, struggles & achievements|year=2018|isbn=978-81-237-8144-0|edition=First |location=New Delhi|oclc=1045373879}}</ref>

== Career ==
Houlton was an obstetric assistant, pathologist, and surgeon at the [[Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital|Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital]] in London. She first visited India in 1913, and from 1918 to 1919 taught as a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the [[Lady Hardinge Medical College]] in [[Delhi]].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=September 1919|title=Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCW63lzYPjcC&q=Miss+Houlton+medical+India&pg=PA184|journal=The Collegian and Progress of India|volume=12|pages=184}}</ref> From 1924 to 1928, she was medical superintendent of the [[Women's Medical Service for India|Women's Medical Service]] (WMS) at [[Shimla|Simla]], where she worked on establishing a women's hospital and medical college. From 1927 to 1932, she was medical superintendent at [[St Stephen's Hospital, Delhi|St. Stephen's Hospital]] in Delhi. She returned to Lady Hardinge College in 1932, as principal and professor. From 1935 to 1939 she was chief medical officer of the Women's Medical Service, based in Delhi,<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|date=19 January 1957|title=Obituary: Charlotte L. Houlton, C.B.E., M.D., F.R.C.O.G.|url=https://www.bmj.com/content/1/5011/170.3|journal=Br Med J|language=en|volume=1|issue=5011|pages=170–171|doi=10.1136/bmj.1.5011.170-b|issn=0007-1447|pmid=13383222|s2cid=220209637}}</ref> an appointment that was criticised in the Indian press as representing a "persistent disregard to seniority of the Indian members of the WMS".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rai|first=Saurav Kumar|date=2014|title=Indianization of the Indian Medical Service, c. 1890s-1930s|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44158466|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=75|pages=830–832|jstor=44158466|issn=2249-1937}}</ref>

Houlton was secretary of the [[Countess of Dufferin Fund]], and helped plan the [[All India Institutes of Medical Sciences|All-India Institute of Medical Sciences]].<ref name=":0" /> She was also medical missions secretary for the [[United Society Partners in the Gospel|Society for the Propagation of the Gospel]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Riddick|first=John F.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Es6x4u_g19UC&q=Charlotte+Leighton+Houlton&pg=PA277|title=The History of British India: A Chronology|date=2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32280-8|pages=277|language=en}}</ref> Her professional publications included "An Investigation of the Bacteria of the Vagina in Pregnancy" (''British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology'', 1924).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Houlton|first=Charlotte L.|date=1924|title=An Investigation of the Bacteria of the Vagina in Pregnancy.|url=https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1471-0528.1924.tb12306.x|journal=BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology|language=en|volume=31|issue=2|pages=258–263|doi=10.1111/j.1471-0528.1924.tb12306.x|s2cid=73406689|issn=1471-0528}}</ref>

Houlton received the [[Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]] in 1927.<ref>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/14193/page/9/data.pdf "Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood"] ''Edinburgh Gazette'' (1 January 1926): 9.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=1926|title=New Year Honours|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25447382|journal=The British Medical Journal|volume=1|issue=3393|pages=63|jstor=25447382|issn=0007-1447}}</ref> She was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists|Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists]] in 1937.<ref name=":1" /> She was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1939.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pass|first=Andrea|date=26 March 2012|title=Empire and Mission: Singing from the Same Hymn Sheet?|url=http://www.vahs.org.uk/2012/03/empire-and-mission/|access-date=11 October 2020|website=Voluntary Action History Society|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=1939|title=New Year Honours, 1939|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20301985|journal=The British Medical Journal|volume=1|issue=4070|pages=30–31|jstor=20301985|issn=0007-1447}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Houlton died in 1956, after several years with [[Parkinson's disease]], aged 74 years, at the St Francis Anglican convent in [[Whitby]].<ref name=":1" />

== References ==
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[[Category:1882 births]]
[[Category:1956 deaths]]
[[Category:British obstetricians]]

Charlotte Leighton Houlton - Revision history

>Monkbot at 18:26, 16 December 2020