Geraldine Atkinson

Dr. Geraldine Atkinson was a medical doctor who died when she was only 24 years old.  She died unexpectedly in February 2009 of a rare brain disorder when she was on holiday at Reykjavik in Iceland. She studied medicine at the University College London Medical School in Bloomsbury and had just qualified to be a doctor in the UK.  Prior to her training at University College London, she attended the Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead Garden Suburb.  Dr. Atkinson was a junior doctor at Royal Free.  She was thirteen years old when she wrote this poem, which she had entitled The Spirit. This text was set by Gabriel Jackson when he was commissioned by her parents to write a composition in her memory.