Pam Zinkin

FEARLESS paediatrician and NHS campaigner Pamela Zinkin, who saved children’s lives across the world, has died aged 94.

This week family and friends paid tribute to the former Whittington consultant and much-loved member of left-wing activist circles in Islington – a remarkable woman who lived an extraordinary life.

Pam was born in London to typist Mary (née McMeekin) and fur cutter turned journalist Peter Zinkin.

During the Second World War, aged eight, Pam was evacuated to Garnant, a mining village in Wales, and when the war ended, she returned to live with her mother and step-father, George Ives, in a one-bedroom flat in Chalk Farm.

She studied medicine at Leeds University in 1951 and worked her way up to become a consultant at Great Ormond Street.

“I think she became actively involved in politics and activism because of the Vietnam war,” said Pam’s eldest son, Martin.

“She told me she had been working in the burns unit on her rotations, and the idea of napalm – a weapon designed to cause the horrendous suffering she was treating – was unbearable.”

Martin was born in the late 1960s and in 1975 Pam adopted another son, Colin.

Both boys attended Tufnell Park Primary and later Acland Burghley, growing up in the Tufnell Park flat where Pam stayed for the rest of her life.

She went on to campaign in support of independence struggles in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau, which prompted a move to Mozambique in 1977, where the health service was depleted by the departure of Portuguese doctors following the country’s independence.

Pam quickly became head of paediatrics at a hospital in Maputo, and a six-month visit turned into five years that were among the most important of her life.

Martin said: “She brought up a child as a single parent while holding down a full-time consultant job; decided that she had more to give, and adopted another child; and then moved all three of us to a newly independent country where she had little idea what she would face and where she barely spoke the language. She was absolutely fearless.”

Despite long work days and nights in Mozambique, Pam’s separation from her own mother during the Second World War meant that, as a parent, she was “determined to always be present”, and “loved us fiercely”, said Martin.

“She was often exhausted. We didn’t see much of her but even at that age we knew how important the work was and were proud of her.”

After two years in Mozambique, Pam and her team had reduced the number of child deaths at the hospital from 30 per cent to 10 per cent, and to 4 per cent another year later.

Reluctantly returning to London in 1982, Pam became a consultant paediatrician at the Whittington and her expertise in child development, disability and care of children in war meant that even after retiring from the NHS she served as a trustee to, or advised charities and NGOs including UNICEF, Save The Children, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Oxfam.

At a celebration of Pam’s life organised by her family, there were so many people of all ages that there was barely room for them, Martin told the Tribune, and many joined online from Mozambique, Palestine, Senegal, India, Canada and across the UK.

Among her many friends was Annette Thomas, who met Pam when they were in their 80s and became a close friend. As members of the Islington Pensioners Forum, they campaigned together into their 90s, standing on NHS picket lines, marching for Palestine and canvassing for MP Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North.

“She was just a remarkable, one-in-a-million person,” said Ms Thomas, who met up with Pam several times a week for tea, evening drinks or a spell of gardening.

“She cared a lot about the world, and she was so much fun. I think what I miss most of all is her giggling at silly things.

“She was very much an intellectual, but she didn’t want to be considered one. She wanted to be one of the mob, as it were. She was an independent woman and a very hard-working one. Nothing was out of her boundary. She was a very all round sort of person. I don’t think there are a lot of people like that.”

Jeremy Corbyn told the Tribune: “I knew Pam for many years and one could not do anything but absolutely admire her steadfastness for people in desperate need, and her work in Mozambique, and her endless campaigning for the principle of an NHS free at the point of use. She was a mainstay of our community, an incredibly intelligent, well-informed, decent woman. I miss her terribly.”

Pam swam at the Hampstead Ponds, and continued Mandarin and piano lessons into her 90s.
She was also a member of the Sadler’s Wells Company of Elders, which put on public shows every year.

Martin said: “She was the most amazing person I have ever met. She was my hero and I am enormously proud to be her son.”

Pam is survived by her two sons and granddaughter.