Marion Macleod obituary

My mother, Marion Macleod, who has died aged 86, was an academic microbiologist and medical sociologist. She was also a fine example of the benefits of the postwar policy of opening up higher education to bright students from all backgrounds.

Marion was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the daughter of Roland Fairman, a coach painter, and his wife, Rhoda (nee Finch), a cleaner. The family lived in a shared terraced house with no bathroom and an outside toilet. Evacuated at the outbreak of the second world war, Marion was sent first to Berwick-upon-Tweed and then to Shap in Cumberland (now Cumbria). On returning to Newcastle, economic pressure forced her to leave school and start work aged 16, as a technician in a bacteriology laboratory at Newcastle University. She continued her school studies at evening class and won a university scholarship.