Edith Körner
Encyclopedia
Edith Körner CBE was a British
magistrate
and reformer of the National Health Service
. She was the wife of the philosopher Stephan Körner
and mother of the mathematician Thomas Körner and the biochemist, writer and translator Ann M. Körner.
During the war, she met Stephan Körner
, a fellow Czech refugee, who was studying for his doctorate in philosophy at Cambridge; the couple married in London in 1944. After the end of the war and Stephan's release from the Czech army, the couple settled in Bristol where Stephan took up an assistant lectureship at the university.
Not content simply to stay at home raising a family, she became a member of the committee overseeing the two local long-stay psychiatric hospitals in the 1950s. This was a fast-changing time for psychiatric medicine, with new drug treatments and changing public attitudes allowing new methods of treatment and care, and Mrs Körner (she never allowed her colleagues to call her by her first name) argued strongly - and successfully - to restructure and reform the sector to take full advantage of these developments.
She was appointed a local magistrate in 1966, and would later become the first woman - and the first immigrant - to chair the board in Bristol (from 1987 to 1990). She chaired the bench during the poll tax
upheavals of the late 1980s - some 20,000 people in Bristol refused to pay the charge - maintaining a judicial impartiality despite a strong personal and political objection to the tax. She argued strongly for a clear separation of the judiciary and the executive, and for the court system to be as streamlined and efficient as possible.
By 1976 she had become the chair of the Regional Health Authority
for the south-west, gaining a reputation as an informed and intelligent commentator on health-service issues. In 1967 she had studied the use of computers in the health service for the South Western Regional Hospital Board (as it then was), and in 1980 she was asked to chair a full-scale national review of the way information was generated and handled in the NHS.
The Körner Committee studied the matter for four years and produced six major sets of recommendations, all of which were adopted and put into action by the government. The committee's work paved the way for a full-scale computerization of the health service; for the next twenty years, the statistical information used to monitor the work of the NHS was known as "Körner Data".
The Körners had two children, Thomas William Körner
(b. 1946) and Ann Körner (b. 1947); the latter married Sidney Altman
, a Canadian molecular biologist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
in 1989.
In the late summer of 2000, Mrs. Körner was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer
, which had advanced to such a stage that she was given only weeks to live. After putting their affairs in order, the couple were found dead together on 17 August. According to the police report, they were found by a physician, each with two plastic bags tied around the head, with pillows on top of the bags. Their deaths were ruled suicides because the coroner stated that he was "sure beyond reasonable doubt that both these persons intended to take their own lives."
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
and reformer of the National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
. She was the wife of the philosopher Stephan Körner
Stephan Körner
Stephan Körner, FBA was a British philosopher, who specialised in the work of Kant, the study of concepts, and in the philosophy of mathematics...
and mother of the mathematician Thomas Körner and the biochemist, writer and translator Ann M. Körner.
Biography
Born Edita Leah Löwy in Znojmo, Czechoslovakia, the daughter of a corn miller. She travelled to the United Kingdom as a refugee in 1939, after the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia; her family remained behind, with only her brother and several cousins surviving the war. (In 1938/1939, her father changed the family name to Laner in a vain attempt to deceive the Nazis into thinking that he and his family were not Jewish.) She arrived with no money, speaking four languages - Czech, German, Italian and French but little English. Among other jobs, she worked briefly for Reuters.During the war, she met Stephan Körner
Stephan Körner
Stephan Körner, FBA was a British philosopher, who specialised in the work of Kant, the study of concepts, and in the philosophy of mathematics...
, a fellow Czech refugee, who was studying for his doctorate in philosophy at Cambridge; the couple married in London in 1944. After the end of the war and Stephan's release from the Czech army, the couple settled in Bristol where Stephan took up an assistant lectureship at the university.
Not content simply to stay at home raising a family, she became a member of the committee overseeing the two local long-stay psychiatric hospitals in the 1950s. This was a fast-changing time for psychiatric medicine, with new drug treatments and changing public attitudes allowing new methods of treatment and care, and Mrs Körner (she never allowed her colleagues to call her by her first name) argued strongly - and successfully - to restructure and reform the sector to take full advantage of these developments.
She was appointed a local magistrate in 1966, and would later become the first woman - and the first immigrant - to chair the board in Bristol (from 1987 to 1990). She chaired the bench during the poll tax
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
upheavals of the late 1980s - some 20,000 people in Bristol refused to pay the charge - maintaining a judicial impartiality despite a strong personal and political objection to the tax. She argued strongly for a clear separation of the judiciary and the executive, and for the court system to be as streamlined and efficient as possible.
By 1976 she had become the chair of the Regional Health Authority
Regional Health Authority
A regional health authority is a state enterprise responsible for specialist healthcare in one of four regions of Norway. Responsibilities of the RHFs include patient treamtment, education of medical staff, research and training of patients and relatives...
for the south-west, gaining a reputation as an informed and intelligent commentator on health-service issues. In 1967 she had studied the use of computers in the health service for the South Western Regional Hospital Board (as it then was), and in 1980 she was asked to chair a full-scale national review of the way information was generated and handled in the NHS.
The Körner Committee studied the matter for four years and produced six major sets of recommendations, all of which were adopted and put into action by the government. The committee's work paved the way for a full-scale computerization of the health service; for the next twenty years, the statistical information used to monitor the work of the NHS was known as "Körner Data".
The Körners had two children, Thomas William Körner
Thomas William Körner
Thomas William Körner is a British pure mathematician and the author of school books. He is titular Professor of Fourier Analysis in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity Hall...
(b. 1946) and Ann Körner (b. 1947); the latter married Sidney Altman
Sidney Altman
Sidney Altman is a Canadian American molecular biologist, who is currently the Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Chemistry at Yale University. In 1989 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas R...
, a Canadian molecular biologist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
in 1989.
In the late summer of 2000, Mrs. Körner was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
, which had advanced to such a stage that she was given only weeks to live. After putting their affairs in order, the couple were found dead together on 17 August. According to the police report, they were found by a physician, each with two plastic bags tied around the head, with pillows on top of the bags. Their deaths were ruled suicides because the coroner stated that he was "sure beyond reasonable doubt that both these persons intended to take their own lives."
Further reading
- "Edith Korner". In the Times, 23 August 2000.
- "Together to the very end". Sophie Walker in the Daily Mail, 4 October 2000.
- Paul Forrest, Coroner's Court, Bristol UK, October 18 2000