biology

Margery Davies

Margery Davies is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Margery Davies rather than just read about it. In short: Margery Davies (10 January 1895 – 20 December 1984) was a British doctor and Girl Guide executive. She was the first female doctor to have a practice in Worthing.

Key takeaways

Margery Davies belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Margery Davies to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Margery Davies from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Margery Davies (10 January 1895 – 20 December 1984) was a British doctor and Girl Guide executive. She was the first female doctor to have a practice in Worthing. She volunteered in post-war Germany with the Guide International Service (GIS) in 1945.

Personal life and education Edith Margery Davies was born in Woolwich, London to Sidney Davies, a medical officer of health, and Lucy Davies. She attended Blackheath High School, studied medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women and qualified as a doctor at the Royal Free Hospital in 1920. She subsequently established a GP practice in Worthing. In 1942, while she was out, a German Heinkel plane crashed into her garden and surgery, killing eight people. She subsequently moved house. After retiring in 1958 she moved first to Sullington and then to Ringmer. In 1969 she travelled to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where she met Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and Princess Anne at a civic reception. Her funeral was held at Worthing United Reformed Church. In lieu of flowers, donations were request for the '"Margery Davies Memorial Fund" for the "furtherance of Guiding projects".

Career When Davies established a GP practice in Worthing in 1925, she was the first woman to do so. In 1940 she went into partnership with Olive Burnett. She retired in 1958 but continued to work as a locum and at infant welfare clinics.

Girl Guides Davies joined the Girl Guide movement in 1925, becoming captain of 13th B Worthing (Seabury School) Guide company. By 1928 she was captain of the 12th Worthing (Congregational) Guide company. In 1938 she started a Sea Ranger crew. Other Guiding roles included acting as Worthing's division camp advisor and as commissioner for District 3 Guides. She resigned as commissioner in 1955 due to workload. From 1959 to 1966 she acted as chairman and recorder for West Sussex Trefoil Guild.

Guide International Service (GIS) In 1944 Davies joined the Guide International Service (GIS), which had been established two years previously with the aim of sending teams of adult Girl Guides into Europe after World War II to aid with relief work. The following year Davies joined only the second GIS team to travel to post-war Europe. The team included 22 Guide leaders (including Mollie Walter also from Worthing) and five Scout leaders. The team leader was Australian Meredith Ross. In March 1945, just before leaving, they were "entertained by the Queen in the drawing room at Buckingham Palace." The team worked in Tilburg, where they set up a hospital, briefly in 's-Heerenberg and then at Belsen concentration camp, Germany, where Davies oversaw a staff of German doctors and nurses. Most of the patients displaced people (DPs) were suffering from typhus, famine oedema or tuberculosis. She returned to Worthing in July 1945 and would give talks about her work and the ongoing need for support of DPs.

Other Worthing National Council of Women and Women Citizens' Association, executive council member Women's League of Health and Beauty, member St Monica's Home for Illegitimate Children and Unmarried Mothers, honorary professional advisor

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Margery Davies

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Margery Davies claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Margery Davies before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Margery Davies ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Margery Davies

In research: Margery Davies appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Margery Davies in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Margery Davies is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1895 births, 1984 deaths, 20th-century British medical doctors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Margery Davies outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Margery Davies in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Margery Davies means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Margery Davies out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Margery Davies in simple terms?

Margery Davies (10 January 1895 – 20 December 1984) was a British doctor and Girl Guide executive. She was the first female doctor to have a practice in Worthing.

Why does Margery Davies matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Margery Davies?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Margery Davies.