McAllister, Dr Anne Hutchison, 1892-1983, speech therapist

Anne Hutchison McAllister (1892-1983), a leading speech therapist, was a founder member of the College of Speech Therapists (later the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists) and its first President (until 1971). She was instrumental in the beginnings of the Glasgow School of Speech Therapy at Jordanhill College of Education in 1935 and her name became synonymous with speech therapy education in Glasgow.

After McAllister graduated MA from the University of Glasgow in 1917, she trained as a teacher at Stow College and was appointed lecturer in Phonetics there in 1919, and subsequently at the teacher training college at Jordanhill. She obtained BEd from the University of Glasgow 1924. She and a colleague set up the first University Speech clinic in Scotland in 1927 and the case load grew so rapidly that she started courses for the training of speech therapists in Glasgow. She established the Glasgow School of Speech Therapy in 1935 and was Director until 1964. In 1936 she began a speech clinic at the dispensary at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, for children who had undergone operations for cleft palates and hare lips. In 1937, McAllister graduated DSc from Glagow and her seminal work ‘Clinical Studies’ was published. She became well known for her broadcasts to schools on speech.

Dr Anne McAllister was awarded an OBE in 1954.

ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, International Council on Archives (2nd edition, 2003); Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names, National Council on Archives (1997).

Authority created 03/10/19 by Rachael Jones

-Robertson, Sandra; Kersner, Myra; Davis, Shirley, eds. 'The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy: A History of the College 1945-1995', Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, 1995, p16.
-The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography