Joyce Robertson 27th March 1919-12th April 2013: Writer and Researcher Who Studied the Effect on Children of Separation from Their Parents, Particularly in Hospitals

Qualified as a doctor in 1951 and became registrar to Dr Dermot MacCarthy, paediatrician, Amersham and Aylesbury in 1954. Mothers were automatically asked to come in with their children under five after he had seen the film A Two Year Old Goes to Hospital in 1952. She met James Robertson in 1958 when he came to Amersham to make the film Going to Hospital with Mother and continued to take an interest both in the Robertson's work and in improving conditions for mothers and children in hospital. She was an active member of the National Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital (NAWCH). Mary was a Consultant Child Psychiatrist in Aylesbury (twenty-five years) and the Children's Diabetic Clinic in Oxford (twenty years). After retirement she became an expert witness in the family division of the law courts for fifteen years and has been a member of the Robertson Centre from its beginnings. Writings and talks include: Mothers in Hospital, Children with Diabetes, Effect on Siblings on the Death of a Child, and Listening and Reflecting, her Presidential address to the Paediatric Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1989-1990. E-mail: