The plaque, at 4 Barnfield Hill, EX1 1SR, was unveiled on 28th September 2024 by Dr Mark Jackson, son of Dr Margaret Jackson.
It reads “Dr Margaret Jackson, 1898-1987, Pioneer of Birth Control and Fertility Treatment, Practised here, 1964-1982“.
The cost of the plaque was generously supported by private individuals, the Elmgrant Trust, the Medical Women’s Federation and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare.
Dr Jackson was a pioneer of family planning services and fertility treatment, who worked in Exeter from the 1930s until her retirement in 1982. Qualifying as a doctor in the 1920s, and faced with the limited jobs available for for women doctors at the time, she seized the opportunity that family planning offered and developed a career that led to her being recognised internationally as an expert in both family planning and fertility treatment. As a founding supporter of the Family Planning Association and an early practitioner of fertility-related medicine, she was one of the first to prescribe intrauterine devices and contraceptive pills, and to publish research on their use. Similarly, she was one of the very first doctors in Britain to practise donor insemination for childless couples. At the same time, she gained a reputation for giving her time unstintingly to each of her patients, whose interests were always paramount. She was one of very few doctors working in this field of medicine when she started, and had to argue the case for her work against a largely hostile medical establishment. As a result of her work, Devon was better provided with these services in the 1930s than many other counties, while early progress was made both nationally and internationally in developing these new fields of medicine which have been of benefit to millions of people.
The plaque has been placed on the building at 4 Barnfield Hill, now owned by the Margaret Jackson Trust, which was acquired by the Family Planning Association in 1963 as its first dedicated premises for family planning clinics in the city.
Image of Dr Jackson courtesy of the Jackson family