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Dr Jean Mary Shanks (Princess Galitzine)

Dr Jean Shanks was among the most distinguished pathologists in the country. She studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford arriving in 1943, where she was serious in her ambitions and later becanme one of the first women to become clinical students at the Middlesex Hospital.

 

Essentially a quiet and reserved person she also had great charm and among friends could be the life and soul of the party with a gift for friendship. In 1976 she married Prince Yuri Galitzine.

 

Jean eventually established the largest clinical laboratory in the United Kingdom occupying four houses in Harley Street including her grandfather's old home. In 1985 Jean Shanks Pathology Services signed an agreement with St Martin's Hospital taking over its pathology departments.

 

In 1986 the company, JS Pathology Plc, was launched on the stock market and became one of the 'glamour shares' of the time and by 1987 Jean employed 274 staff handling between 1,500 and 2,000 patients a day. The Jean Shanks Foundation was founded soon after the flotation.

 

Through her foundation and private donations she was able to benefit many causes in her profession and the arts including endowing the William Walton Foundation and the Richard Lewis Trust, just two of the diverse examples of her generosity.

 

She loved collecting works of art, was a knowledgeable gardener, and studied the piano with all her usual determination.

 

Jean Shanks died on Remembrance Day in 2000.

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