Welcome to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Over 60,000 biographies, 72 million words, 11,000 portraits of significant, influential or notorious figures who shaped British history – perform advanced search
- Life of the day now available by email or RSS feed.
- Learn about our editors and read the Letter from the General Editor Professor Sir David Cannadine.
What's new
What's new: January 2023
This month’s update adds the lives of eight members of the Order of Companions of Honour, completing ODNB’s coverage of the early members of the order, created in 1917. The new entrants comprise the officers’ charity organizer, Lady Lansdowne, the labour leaders James Seddon and James Parker, the civil servants Samuel Provis and William Napier Bruce, the headmaster Herbert James, the surgeon Florence Barrett, and the Baptist minister John Charles Carlile. Read the introduction here.
Featured
Barrett [née Perry; other married name Willey], Florence Elizabeth, Lady Barrett (1867–1945), obstetric and gynaecological surgeon
The obstetric and gynaecological surgeon, Florence Barrett, trained and held clinical appointments at the London School of Medicine for Women, where she became dean. A skilled surgeon and an expert administrator, she was lauded by contemporaries as an exemplar to all medical women. She was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1929.