Buildings of Interest

Description

The house and adjoining dental practice was built around 1900 for dental surgeon Frank Donald Lamb. Frank was the son of a prominent United Methodist minister, and the family lived at 43, Dicconson  Street. In 1939, Frank was living at 30, Brock Mill Lane, with his wife and sister-in-law, aged 60.

In 1953, Frank Lamb was living at 27, Montrose Drive in Southport, but died in a nursing home in Stockport.

By 1939 the house was now owned by Dr. Muriel Haigh and her dentist husband.

She was a pioneering Wigan doctor and an important figure in the town’s civic and cultural life. In 1927 she became the first woman doctor in Wigan Borough to establish her own general practice, beginning a medical career in the town that lasted around forty years. She became particularly respected for her concern for women, children and poorer families. She also trained volunteers at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary and was later admitted to the Venerable Order of St John as a Serving Sister, subsequently becoming Wigan Corps Surgeon. Beyond medicine, Haigh helped establish two organisations that became lasting parts of Wigan life: she was the founder and first president of Wigan Soroptimists in 1941 and was also involved in the foundation of Wigan Music Society that year.

Her contribution to Wigan was formally recognised when a Wigan Council Blue Plaque was unveiled there on 31 August 2021, following a nomination by Soroptimist International Wigan. The plaque commemorates her as a family doctor and founder of SI Wigan and Wigan Music Society. Muriel Haigh died in 1990, and her funeral service was held at Wigan Parish Church. The plaque at Camelot provides a permanent reminder of a woman who broke new ground professionally while devoting much of her life to the health, welfare and cultural life of the people of Wigan.