Mary Young McArthur Stevenson M.B., CH.B., D.P.H., M.F.HOM (29 January 1899 – 18 June 1972) was an homeopath at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital. She was one of sixteen homeopaths who died in the Staines Trident air disaster in June, 1972.

Homeopaths and homeopathic supporters including Isabel Campbell, Dudley Wooton Everitt, Marjorie Golomb, Elizabeth Sharp Hawthorn, Sergei William Kadleigh, sisters Kawther Theresa Kandalla and Ludi Marylone Kandalla, Joan Mackover, John Robertson Raeside, Elizabeth Somerville Stewart and Thomas Fergus Stewart, also died in that fatal crash.

Mary Young Stevenson’s Obituary was provided by Dr. Marianne Harling in the British Homeopathic Journal vol. 61, no. 4. (October, 1972), page 248-9:

Dr. Mary Young MacArthur Stevenson was born in Paisley on 29 January 1899. She was educated at Paisley Grammar School and studied medicine at Glasgow University, qualifying in 1923. She took the D.P.H. (CAMBS.) in 1927. She held several appointments in Maternity and Child Welfare and in Public Health, and it is clear that her interest lay in health rather than in disease. This led her to study subjects which are still, and were then much more, on the fringe of orthodox medicine first Natural Therapy, at the Bircher-Benner Clinic in Zurich, Natural Childbirth, and the psychological therapy of Mary Macaulay; later Radiesthesia and Radionics, in which she became proficient, and which led her to the study of Homoeopathy. She had been an Associate of the Faculty of Homoeopathy since 1953, and a Member since 1970. She was an enthusiastic member of the International Homoeopathic League, and regularly attended their European Congresses with her friend Dr. Isabel Campbell, who lost her life in the same tragedy. She was a member of the Medical Women’s Federation, and attended their Congresses too it was a good way, she said, to take a holiday. She was also a member of the Medical Society for the Study of Radiesthesia.

Mary’s outstanding qualities were gentleness, humility, and an intuition which enabled her to make deep and instant contact with others and become their friend at once. I first met her for an afternoon in 1946; our next meeting was twelve years later, and we were able to pick up the conversation as if it had been the previous day. She was a good listener; she had studied and learned a great deal in her time, and was expert in a number of subjects, yet she never was known to lay down the law, or to press her opinions (unless indeed she considered it to be necessary in the cause of justice and truth, as when she volunteered to give evidence for the defence in the De la Warr Trial a painful ordeal for one so naturally retiring). It was I think her humility which prevented her from taking the examination for Membership of the Faculty of Homoeopathy until 1970, when her friends persuaded her that she was doing herself and Homoeopathy a disservice by being content to remain an Associate. As for her gentleness, this was evident in all that her patients have said of her, and all that her friends have experienced; and perhaps it was this quality that led her to Homoeopathy, surely the gentlest of therapies.

Mary had created a unique practice in the Midlands, which extended much further by virtue of her radiesthetic work. She was also a “doctor’s doctor”, consulted by colleagues for many problems, particularly where a delicate emotional issue was involved. Unmarried, she was a most motherly person, and her patients were her children. Recently she had been concerned that her advancing years, and the encroachment of a projected major road upon her property might constrain her to retire. I am glad that she never saw that day.

The ways of Providence are strange, and no doubt many patterns will be manifested in the wake of the disaster that has so bereaved Homoeopathy. Mary Stevenson’s life was rounded and complete. She had given herself away to others, and was ready to set out upon the next stage of her chosen path. We shall mourn her deeply, but we are grateful for her inspiration, and feel better for having known her.

Memorial Address, given by Dr. Llewelyn Ralph Twentyman, at the Memorial Service commemorating those who died in the aircraft disaster. Held at the church of St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, London W.C.1, on Thursday, 29 June, 1972. Printed in the British Homeopathic Journal vol. 61, no. 3 (July, 1972), pages 130-133:

ISABEL CAMPBELL, full of vitality and strength, coming from the Scottish land, passionately caring for the welfare of her patients and full of great strength and appreciation of all who came in touch with her, and her friend MARY STEVENSON, whom I often met, here and abroad. All who knew her know how sensitive and caring a heart she had. These two used to go to conferences and take part in them together and take holidays together. They were always of enormously great cheer as they must have been to all who went to see them.