Helen Deem (née Easterfield)

This biography has been compiled by Professor Dawn Elder from archival records and secondary sources with input from Dr Adrienne Adams, Helen Deem’s granddaughter.

1925 graduate

Early life

Helen was born in Wellington on 26 February 1900 to Thomas and Anna Maria Kunigunda Easterfield. Her mother came from Bavaria and her father, later Sir Thomas, was from Doncaster in England. They met while Sir Thomas was undertaking postgraduate studies in Heidelberg and emigrated to Wellington when he was appointed foundation Professor of Chemistry at Victoria University of Wellington. The family then moved to Nelson when he became Director of the Cawthorn Institute from 1919-1933. (1) During this period Sir Thomas would entertain Lord Rutherford on his rare trips back to Nelson. This was a household environment where knowledge and learning thrived.

Helen was educated at Miss Francis’s School in Botanical Road, Wellington where in 1910 she took part in an operetta as a “Sunflower”. (2) She continued to Wellington Girls’ College where she had some success with swimming sports while at school. (3) She undertook premed at Victoria College and then was admitted to the Otago Medical School graduating in 1925. (4) At University Helen’s interest in sport continued and she represented Otago University in lawn tennis, securing both the Whanganui and Rotorua championships. (5) Helen’s sister, Theodora, also studied medicine, graduating a year later.

Early career

After graduation, Helen worked initially as a House surgeon in Whanganui and then in Oamaru for 8 months in 1927. (6) When a scholarship was set up to honour Lady Isabella King (wife of Sir Truby King) after her death in 1927, Helen was the first person to be awarded the scholarship. (7) She used the scholarship to study infant feeding and nutrition. Her MD thesis, “Observations on the milk of New Zealand women”, was followed by a publication in Archives of Disease in Childhood. (8)

In 1928, she became the third early woman graduate to be awarded an MD. The Plunket Society was keen to hear about the results of Helen’s research and she spoke at the Society’s Annual meeting in July 1928. (10) While practising medicine in Whanganui she was appointed lecturer and honorary physician to the local Truby King-Stewart Karitane Hospital and in 1933, she became a member of the Plunket Society’s newly formed medical advisory committee. This had been set up because of the public concern being expressed by doctors working with children around the country, about some of the Plunket Society infant feeding recommendations.

Dr Montgomery Spencer in Wellington was particularly outspoken about the fact that he felt he was seeing undernourished children in his clinical practice because the Plunket infant feeding guidelines were too inflexible. (11) His views were supported by other doctors including two other early medical women graduates Marie Buchler (1932) and Elspeth Fitzgerald (1920).

Marriage

Helen’s engagement to Mr JS Longton Deem of Wanganui was announced in 1927. (12) Longton Deem was a respected local city engineer and had also been provincial swimming champion of Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay and Wanganui so they may have met because of this common interest. (13)Helen completed her MD during their engagement period and they married in 1929 in Nelson. The local papers at the time provided a detailed description of the nuptials and reported that the happy couple were sent off on their honeymoon, a motor tour of the South Island. (14)

Helen and Longton Deem set up home in Whanganui and two years later their daughter Philippa was born. Sadly, the marriage was to last only four years because of the sudden death of her husband at the age of 38 years while walking on Mt Ruapehu in 1933, a tragedy widely reported in the national and local newspapers. (15) The Press reported that ‘the death of Mr J. S. L. Deem, city engineer of Wanganui, on Mount Ruapehu, on Sunday afternoon, occurred at a spot 6000 feet up the slopes and about five miles from the Chateau, some distance away from the usual route up the glacier.’

The Deems were accompanied by a friend, Nurse Rose of the Karitane Hospital. As they could not call for aid the two women were forced to leave the Mr Deem’s body in the snow and go for help leaving a pickaxe to mark the place because of the depth of the snow. This must have been a very distressing event. The death, presumed due to medical causes, was unexpected as Mr Deem had reportedly been healthy and was not unused to climbing of this sort having helped with mountain rescues in the past.

Later career

After her husband’s death, Helen moved to Wellington with her daughter and in May 1934 she was offered the position of ship’s surgeon on the Port Melbourne and went to England for further specialised study. (16) In 1935 it was reported in the Hawke’s Bay Tribune that she has been successful in obtaining the Diploma of the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

In London she obtained a position as clinical assistant at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, and then went to work at the Chelsea Hospital for women. (17) Her friend Miss Eleanor Rose visited her in 1935 and together they went travelling in Scotland. (18)

In 1936 it was reported in the Wanganui Chronicle that Dr Helen Deem was to arrive back in NZ in New Zealand on July 6. (19) She had for the past three months been working at the Queen Victoria Hospital, Australia, an appointment taken up on her way back from England. It was reported that she was eagerly looking forward to seeing her small daughter, Phillipa, who has been staying with her aunt, Dr. Theo. Hall, of Gisborne during her time overseas.

On return home she spent some time staying with her parents in Nelson and then moved to Hamilton to take over the role of Assistant Health Officer for the Waikato district where the health of Māori women and children was to be her specific concern. This role had two components: School Medical Officer in the South Auckland Health District and assistant to Dr Turbott in the Department of Health. She studied nutritional and public health problems among the preschool and school children of the Taupō-Tokaanu district and also lectured to parents, teachers and nurses on dietetics, general health, and physical education.

In December 1938 Helen Deem was appointed to the role of Medical Advisor of the Plunket Society in December 1938. At the time of her application for the role, she had testimonials from Drs Watt and Turbott of the Health Department, Professor Camalt-Jones (Otago Medical School), and Dr Corkill, one of the doctors who had been critical of Truby King methods. Her Whanganui medical colleague, Dr Herbert Robertson, also supported her application, saying she had a mind ‘somewhat like her father, which was adapted to investigating and to research matters’. (20)

Deem brought an evidence-based approach to the Plunket Society and an ability to work with the Paediatric colleagues who had become detractors of the Society’s work. Through her careful research, the growth of thousands of infants in Plunket care was able to be studied, and normal growth curves for the New Zealand infant population were determined. She also wrote a new handbook for Plunket, ‘Modern Mothercraft. A Guide for Parents’, which was published in 1945, with a second edition in 1953.

During her term at Plunket, education for fathers was addressed, and ante-natal classes were started. She later turned her attention to the preschool age group and planned a preschool centre in Dunedin that still carries her name. Prevention of avoidable accidents to children was another area of advocacy. Shortly before her death she was urging the government not to impose a tariff on small children’s imported shoes. (21) She wanted to ensure that there was access to good quality shoes for children around the country so that they would not grow up with foot deformities.

In 1946, Helen Deem was appointed lecturer in Preventive Paediatrics at the Otago Medical School, the first woman in a paediatric academic role. She introduced visits to Plunket centres as part of the medical curriculum so that students would learn more about the care of infants. She was awarded a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York which she took up after the war from 1947-48. This enabled her to study advances in paediatric practice overseas in the United States, Great Britain and Scandinavia. (22)

In 1952, she was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to child health. She received this honour from the Queen during the royal visit to New Zealand in 1954.

In 1953, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation medal. She died in 1955 at the age of 55 of lymphocytic leukaemia. She has not remained as much of a household name as Truby King but can be credited for endeavouring to make the Plunket Society systems of the time evidence-based.

Helen Deem clearly valued her medical career and had a very strong work ethic. As a solo mother she needed help with child care to be able to achieve what she did during her working life. As well as living with her mother, her daughter Phillipa also spent time periods living with her maternal Aunt Theo in Gisborne and her paternal Aunt Dolly in Whanganui.

Philippa went to boarding school usually near where her mother was working (St Anns in Auckland, Waikato Diocesan School for girls and Marsden in Wellington) and spent holidays with grandparents in Whanganui and Nelson. She also spent time in Gisborne during the polio epidemic when the schools were shut. When Philippa was studying at University in Dunedin she lived with her mother after her second year and there were many trips together hiking and skiing, including walking the Milford track together.

An obituary in the Press from the Prime Minister Sydney Holland paid tribute to the work of Dr Deem:

Dr. Deem accomplished outstanding work for the health of mothers and children, and thousands have cause to remember her name with gratitude. She was the daughter of a foremost New Zealand scientist, and herself had an admirable career of public service. Dr. Deem achieved high scholastic and professional attainments, and the Plunket Society, in particular and the public health organisation in New Zealand in general have suffered a sad loss in her passing. (23)

The New Zealand Medical Journal stated: “Dr Deem was an outstanding figure in the medical profession in New Zealand, and her contributions to the problems of infant welfare were widely known and appreciated in paediatric circles throughout the world…”. Her contributions to the Plunket Society were acknowledged and the widely used height and weight tables for New Zealand infants were described as “a product of her quest for basic knowledge.” (24)

Dr Howard William, Director of Clinical Research at the Royal Children’s hospital Melbourne wrote in addendum to her NZ Medical Journal obituary: “… she was a woman with a most charming personality and was always so full of sane ideas and practice concerning improvement in child care.” He also acknowledged her work in integrating the field of child health into the medical school curriculum. (25)

Helen Deem’s daughter Phillipa died in 2022 at the age of 91 and in the funeral notice it was requested that in lieu of flowers, donations could be made to the Plunket society.

Bibliography:

1.  MacKay, Deidre. An Appetite for Wonder. Nelson: Cawthron Institute, 2011.
2. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7253, 8 October 1910, Page 11. Papers Past.
3. Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2723, 18 March 1916, Page 11, New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8677, 10 March 1914, Page 9. Papers Past.
4. New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10109, 24 October 1918, Page 4. Papers Past.
5. Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 19 July 1928, Page 6. Papers Past.
6. Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 19 July 1928, Page 6. Papers Past.
7. Bryder, Linda. A Voice for Mothers. The Plunket Society and Infant Welfare 1907-2000. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2003.
8. Deem, H E. “Observations on the Milk of New Zealand Women.” Archives of disease in childhood 6,no. 31 (1931): 53-70. doi:10.1136/adc.6.31.53.
9. Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 19 July 1928, Page 6. Papers Past.
10. Otago Daily Times, Issue 20459, 13 July 1928, Page 10. Papers Past.
11. Daniell C, A Doctor at War. A life in letters, 1914-43. Papers Past.
12. Wairarapa Daily Times, 8 October 1927, Page 4. Papers Past.
13. Horowhenua Chronicle, 11 September 1933, Page 4. Papers Past.
14. Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 22 March 1929, Page 2. Papers Past.
15. Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20960, 14 September 1933, Page 5. Papers Past.
16. Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 1 May 1935, Page 4. Papers Past.
17. Hawke’s Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 126, 14 May 1935, Page 6. Papers Past.
18. Evening Star, Issue 22170, 26 October 1935, Page 26. Papers Past.
19. Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 151, 27 June 1936, Page 2. Papers Past.
20. Bryder, Linda. A Voice for Mothers. The Plunket Society and Infant Welfare 1907-2000. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2003.
21. Pre-school Education 1973; Vol 4 No 1. Papers Past.
22. Obituary, Muriel Helen Deem NZ Med J 1955.54:713-714.
23. Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27800, 27 October 1955, Page 2.
24. Obituary, Muriel Helen Deem NZ Med J 1955.54:713-714.
25. Obituary, Muriel Helen Deem NZ Med J 1955.54:713-714.