Mildred Blaxter

{{Infobox person | name = Mildred Blaxter | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Mildred Lillington Blaxter Hall | birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|03|27|df=y}} | birth_place = Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2010|08|29|1925|03|27|df=y}} | death_place = Weston-super-Mare, England | education = St Anne's College, Oxford | occupation = sociologist and writer | known for = | spouse = Kenneth Blaxter | children = 3 }}

'''Mildred Lillington Blaxter''' (née Hall; 27 March 1925 – 29 August 2010) was a British sociologist and writer. According to her obituary in ''The Guardian'', she "shed new light on the causes of deprivation".<ref name="Guardian">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/sep/21/mildred-blaxter-obituary-sociologist|title=Mildred Blaxter obituary|first=Jennie|last=Popay|date=21 September 2010|work=The Guardian |accessdate=25 November 2017|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref>

==Early life== She was born Mildred Lillington Hall on 27 March 1925 in Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the elder child and only daughter of Robert Charlton Hall, a bank manager, and his wife, Mildred Violet Hall, née Gleed (1897–1963), an actress.<ref name="ONDB">{{cite ODNB|last1=Popay |first1=Jennie |title=Blaxter [née Hall], Mildred Lillington (1925–2010) |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/102533 |year=2004 |publisher=OUP |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/102533 |isbn=978-0-19-861411-1 |accessdate=25 November 2017}}</ref> She was educated at St Anne's College, Oxford, and earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1949, and was the first woman to be assistant editor of the student newspaper, ''Isis''.<ref name="ONDB"/>

==Career== Blaxter was in her 40s, and her children were at school, when she read Peter Townsend's study of old people's homes ''The Last Refuge'', and decided she wanted to be a sociologist.

In 1967, she enrolled at the newly established department of sociology at the University of Aberdeen, alongside Raymond Illsley, Gordon Horobin, Phil Strong, and Alan Davies, and earned a master's degree in 1972, becoming a medical sociologist.<ref name="ONDB"/>

In 1972, she was appointed to the Aberdeen-based Medical Sociology Unit, as scientific officer.<ref name="ONDB"/> In 1976, Blaxter published her first book, ''The Meaning of Disability''. Her 1982 book, ''Mothers and Daughters'' is considered "a classic".<ref name="ONDB"/>

In 1982, when her husband retired, she joined the University of East Anglia, rising to professor of medical sociology in 2000, and was senior sociologist at the University of Cambridge.<ref name="Guardian"/> In 1990, she published ''Health and Lifestyles''.<ref name="Guardian"/> Her last book came out in 2004, ''Health: Key Concepts''.<ref name="Guardian"/>

==Selected publications== *''The Meaning of Disability'' *''Mothers and Daughters'' *''Health and Lifestyles'' *''Health: Key Concepts''

==Personal life== On 12 October 1957, she married Kenneth Blaxter (1919–1991), an animal nutritionist, and they had three children.<ref name="ONDB"/>

==Later life== She died of lung cancer on 29 August 2010 at Weston Hospicecare, Uphill, Weston-super-Mare.<ref name="ONDB"/><ref name="Guardian"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaxter, Mildred Lillington}} Category:1925 births Category:2010 deaths Category:British sociologists Category:Academics of the University of East Anglia Category:Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge Category:Writers from Newcastle upon Tyne Category:Deaths from lung cancer in England Category:British women sociologists Category:Medical sociologists