Commissioned by and hanging in the collection of the Royal College of General Practitioners

Lotte Newman (1929 -2019) arrived in London in 1938 as an 8-year-old Jewish refugee from Frankfurt, the daughter of two doctors. Following qualification in 1957 and two hospital posts, she joined her father in his Edgware practice before establishing her own practice in West Hampstead. In 1968, it expanded to include the Abbey Medical Centre in St John’s Wood, where she worked for more than 35 years until her retirement in 2005. Lotte became an RCGP examiner in 1972, was elected to its Council in 1980, and became its second woman president in 1994. She also served as President of the Medical Women’s Federation from 1987 to 1988. She was a member of the General Medical Council, vice-president of the World Association of Family Doctors (WONCA), and medical director of St John Ambulance. She played a key role in establishing the European Society of General Practice and Family Medicine and the European Journal of General Practice. She was an ardent campaigner for women’s rights. She worked to ensure more women were on College committees, established crèches for College events, and changed meeting times and structures to encourage younger women members to attend. She had four children in five and a half years, taking only 30 weeks of maternity leave. Her husband, Norman Aronsohn, portrayed in sculptural form in her portrait’s background, was key to her success. She concluded that her achievements were down to “luck, very good support from my family, being prepared to be unpopular at times – and always being at least as well prepared as the men at meetings!” Image: Lotte Therese Newman, Christian Furr, 1997. Credit: RCGP collection