Dr Mita Frost
Personal Details
Dr Mita Frost FFARCS MRCS LRCP DA
12/07/1914 to 02/06/1993
Place of birth: The Wirral, Cheshire
Nationality: British
CRN: 722620
Previous/other family name: Her maiden name was Frost, and was the name under which she always appeared in the Medical Register, but she was known clinically (and to the Faculty) as Dr Barnes clinically. Known as Mrs Easton during her later, non-medical activities.
Education and qualifications
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General education |
Variously said to have attended Wycombe Abbey School or been educated privately by an aunt; London School of Medicine for Women |
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Primary medical qualification(s) |
MRCS LRCP, 1939 |
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Initial Fellowship and type |
FFARCS by Election |
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Year of Fellowship |
1953 |
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Other qualification(s) |
DA(RCP&S), 1942 |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
No information about training or early posts. She was appointed a consultant to the newly established regional plastic surgery unit at Odstock Hospital, Salisbury in 1949, and retired in 1979.
Professional interests and activities
Considered, by a surgical colleague, to be “a very good, though unconventional anaesthetist – a lot of Sparine [Editor’s note - promazine] seemed to be used”!
Other biographical information
Married John Hickman Barnes, a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, in 1937. Sadly he was killed in action in 1940. Known to her colleagues as a ‘character’, her horses were her major interest, often working with them early in the day before blocking the hospital car park with the horse box when she arrived (late!) for lists. She trained (successfully) horses for the ‘Turf’, and in 1953 married Alastair Trevithic Easton (sailing manager for HRH Prince Philip), another Fleet Air Arm pilot who had also been shot down, but was luckier and became a PoW. There do not seem to have been children from either marriage. After retiring as an anaesthetist she bought a pub, the ‘Sheaf of Arrows’ at Cranbourne, combining running that with farming and training horses - her jockeys also worked behind the bar!
Author and sources
Author: Dr Bob Palmer
Sources and any other comments: Ancestry.co.uk | Contributions from Dr Alastair Lack, Dr David Linton, Mr Bob McDowall & Dr Peter Smethurst. | sites.google.com accessed on 11/10/2017 | Thanks to Dr Anne Thornberry for help in confirming a number of details.