Florence Barrett

Florence Elizabeth, Lady Barrett, (née Perry; 18 February 1867 – 7 August 1945) was a consultant surgeon at the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton and the Royal Free Hospital in London. She served as president of the Medical Women's Federation, as joint vice-president of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Section of the British Medical Association and president of the Medical Women’s International Association, as well as being a council member of the Eugenics Society. She was a gynaecologist, obstetrician and eugenicist.

Early and private life

Lady Barrett was born on 18 February 1867 to a wealthy family in Henbury in Gloucestershire now part of Bristol. She was the fourth child of merchant and railway agent Benjamin Perry and his wife Elizabeth Perry . She then trained at the London School of Medicine for Women in 1900 where she obtained a Bachelor of Medicine (MB) in 1900 and then a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 1906. At the time the London School of Medicine for Women was the only hospital in England where women could train in medical practice.

Barrett married her maternal cousin Frederick George Ingor Willey, who was a surgeon and the son of Josiah Willey FRCS, in 1896. They had no children. She published an account of the sittings, entitled Personality Survives Death, in 1937. She joined the staff of the Royal Free Hospital in 1906, which was the only hospital in England where women could train in medical practice at the time. Before World War I, she developed voluntary centres for the feeding of expectant mothers and children.

In 1916, Barrett led a fund-raising campaign to extend the hospital, adding maternity, paediatric and infant welfare facilities. She helped to develop the London School of Medicine for Women at the Royal Free Hospital, of which she became Dean and then President in 1937. Barrett advocated for "state interference" in the sex lives of "the unfit" to implement birth control, because she believed that propaganda would be ineffective. Barrett felt that contraception should be overseen by the medical profession and expressed preference for abstinence over contraception in "normal healthy individuals". She preferred to recommend the use of the rhythm method and condoms over other methods. Also in 1921, Barrett gave a report to the annual meeting of the Medical Women’s International Association in Geneva, Switzerland.

Barrett served as president of the Medical Women's Federation in 1923, She served as joint vice-president of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Section of the British Medical Association. In 1924, Barrett was a founder member of the Cancer Research Committee (CRC), established to investigate radium treatment of cervical cancer. She was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and president of the Medical Women's International Association (1924–1929).

Barrett died in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Her funeral took place at St. John the Baptist Church in Cookham Dean, Berkshire and a memorial service was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. Her obituary in The Times stated "She was unquestionably one of the most distinguished of medical women".