Mary Heseltine was an only child, born in Adelaide and educated at Ballarat CEGGS where she was a tennis champion. Tall, slim and elegant, she graduated in medicine from Melbourne University in 1934, was a resident medical officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1935 and resident clinical pathologist in 1936. The following year she moved to Sydney to the position of resident pathologist at the Royal Hospital for Women. In 1943 she was chosen by Sir Herbert Schlink to become a staff specialist pathologist at King George V Hospital, where she remained until her retirement in January 1975. Later, she was a staff specialist pathologist at St Margaret’s Hospital, Darlinghurst from 1976 to 1982. She was made Consultant at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1975 and at St Margaret’s Hospital in 1982.

In 1955 Mary Heseltine was one of the first Australian doctors to study exfoliative cytology with Dr George N. Papanicolaou at Cornell University Medical School. In 1956 she established at King George V Hospital the first gynaecological cytology unit in Australia and there trained the first New South Wales cytotechnologists. Mary was a keen and articulate advocate of cervical screening and gladly provided slides and other material for teaching purposes.

At work, Mary was keen to employ people with disabilities. For some years she had an excellent secretary who had very poor vision, one of the young women she trained in cytotechnology was in a wheelchair and had severe hand deformities, another was deaf.

Her clinical colleagues in KGV, the gynaecologists and obstetricians, found Mary to be a stimulating speaker and good communicator, and held her in great respect as part of the team. As pathology registrars, we found Dr Heseltine to be very formal and strict and a good didactic teacher. In her laboratory, things had to be done as she said.

Mary was a very private person. She never married. Her father was against her taking up a career in medicine. After living in a hospital staff flat for some years, Mary bought a house in Pymble in 1957 and there looked after her aging mother with the help of a live-in housekeeper. She did beautiful work in petit-point and had a passion for camellias, often bringing baskets of blooms to work and later to the NSW Art Gallery, where she became a Guide after retiring from KGV. The Art Gallery became a real joy in Mary’s life. She started training to become a Volunteer Guide in 1974 and in later years studied Asian art and made it her specialty. She stopped guiding tours in 1993 due to increasing deafness, but remained in her home in Pymble, despite failing health during the last six or seven months. She died in her sleep, leaving no known relatives.