Joan Natalie Mackover (Ruben) M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., D.P.H. R.C.P.S. (17 August 1921 – 18 June 1972) was of Jewish Polish descent, and she was an homeopath at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. She was one of sixteen homeopaths who died in the Staines Trident air disaster in June, 1972.

Homeopaths and homeopathic supporters including Isabel Campbell, Dudley Wooton Everitt, Marjorie Golomb, Elizabeth Sharp Hawthorn, Sergei William Kadleigh, sisters Kawther Theresa Kandalla and Ludi Marylone Kandalla, John Robertson Raeside, Mary Stevenson, Elizabeth Somerville Stewart and Thomas Fergus Stewart also died in that fatal crash.

Joan Natalie Mackover was born in London in August, 1921, to Russian Jewish emigre Abraham Mackover (1889 – 1983) and his wife Francis Morris (1892 – 1865).

In 1946, Joan Mackover was elected a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and received her Licentiate from the Royal College of Physicians. In April the same year she married fellow physician Cecil Montague Ruben (1921 – ). They had four sons and a daughter.

In 1949 Mackover was awarded her Diploma of Public Health and RCPS.

By 1957 Joan Mackover had reverted to her pre-marital name, although she was still listed in the Medical Register as residing with C. M. Ruben at 46 Menelik Road, Minster Road, Shoot-Up Hill, London, NW2.

In April 1968 Joan Natalie Mackover was elected an Associate Member of the Faculty of Homeopathy.

Joan Mackover’s Obituary was provided by Dr. Thea Fry in the British Homeopathic Journal vol. 61, no. 4. (October, 1972), page 250-1:

Dr. Joan N. Mackover, general practitioner in North-west London and clinical assistant to the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, died in the Trident air disaster at Heathrow on 18 June 1972. She was 49.

Joan Natalie Mackover was born on 17 August 1921 in London and educated at Hampstead High School and the Royal Free Hospital, where she qualified in 1946, taking the D.P.H in 1949. Always eager to learn new medical skills and to follow new approaches, her particular interest in the patient as an individual led her to study Homoeopathy. She became an Associate Member of the Faculty of Homoeopathy in 1968 and worked as a clinical assistant in the children’s outpatient department at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital since February 1970.

I remember Joan Mackover as a keen, cheerful, intelligent personality when we were fellow students at the Royal Free and also in later years. Always a great reader, she had an impressive knowledge of ancient and modern religions and philosophies. Very much absorbed in her NHS practice, she also took great interest in her work in child welfare clinics. In spite of many adversities she always remained cheerful and optimistic, and dedicated to the welfare of her family and her patients. She had great understanding, patience, and sympathy, especially for the elderly and deprived, and her warm, intelligent personality will be greatly missed by her many patients and friends.

She is survived by a daughter and two sons, one of whom is a veterinary surgeon.

Memorial Address, given by Dr. Llewelyn Ralph Twentyman, at the Memorial Service commemorating those who died in the aircraft disaster. Held at the church of St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, London W.C.1, on Thursday, 29 June, 1972. Printed in the British Homeopathic Journal vol. 61, no. 3 (July, 1972), pages 130-133:

JOAN MACKOVER I knew her a little, we met and talked, and respect and affection for her grew. One had the feeling she was reliable through and through, that she would not let anyone down. Competent, warm, intelligent, trying with all her being to bring greater and more succour and help to all that she could. All this I saw in her, I’m sure it was true. She was friendly and open to all and everything. Irreplaceable such people are.

From Anita Davies, in British Homeopathic Journal vol. 61, no. 4 (October, 1972) page 254:

Joan Mackover first worked under the able tuition of Dr. Kathleen Priestman in the Children’s Clinic at the Royal London Homceopathic Hospital, and showed a particular interest in the backward and physically handicapped child. When she took over as Clinical Assistant on Dr. Priestman’s retirement in February 1970, she showed her grasp of the homceopathic approach to the whole individual by her successful constitutional prescribing, but never failed to give the parents sound general advice as well. Her patients and colleagues miss her sadly. Two days before she was killed I was talking to her about plans to study the part homceopathic therapy should play in helping the handicapped child, and to continue this work would seem a fitting memorial to a good physician taken betimes from our midst.