Jean Burton-Brown was a consultant gynaecologist to the east Kent group of hospitals. She was born in Rothsay on the Isle of Bute, Scotland, on 13 July 1908, the only daughter of Alexander Burton-Brown, a colonel in the Royal Horse Artillery and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Ethel Augusta Burton-Brown née Dixon, the daughter of a major general in the Old India Company. She was educated at Hastings and St Leonard’s Ladies College and St Margaret’s School, Westgate-on-Sea. She later studied medicine at the London School of Medicine, Royal Free Hospital and qualified in 1940 at the age of 32. She held a number of posts in and around London during the Second World War – as a house surgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Base Hospital at St Albans, a house physician and blood transfusion officer at the National Temperance Hospital, a resident medical officer at the Mothers’ Hospital, an obstetric officer at the West Middlesex County Hospital, a house surgeon and then resident registrar at the Samaritan Hospital, a clinical assistant to the gynaecological outpatient department, Royal Free Hospital, and as an assistant surgical officer back at the West Middlesex. From 1944 to 1946 she was a surgical and gynaecological registrar at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and a part-time demonstrator in anatomy at the London School of Medicine. In 1946 she was temporarily in charge of the gynaecology department at Mildmay Hospital. She gained an MD with a gold medal in the same year for her work on placental function. She was subsequently an assistant in the Nuffield department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Oxford, where she worked with John Chassar Moir. In 1950 she described her duties in this post: ‘Since 1947 I have conducted my own ante-natal and post-natal clinics, and have taken part in conducting the gynaecological clinics. I have taken full share of the obstetric admissions either from my own clinic or as emergency admissions, and also in performing obstetrical and gynaecological operations. In addition I have also taken part in the Emergency Obstetric Service, when summoned by general practitioners to outlying districts.’ She also taught pupil midwives, nurses, medical students and postgraduates. In 1950 she was appointed as a consultant gynaecologist to the east Kent group, remaining there until she retired in 1973. She was an early pioneer in the production of medical films for the public, including *My first baby* (1955) and *Toxaemia of pregnancy* (1958). She wrote papers on, among other topics, rupture of the liver associated with parturition, the physiology of the third stage of labour and abnormalities of the foetus and mother. She was active as secretary to the scientific section of obstetrics and gynaecology of the British Medical Association, an examiner for the Central Midwives Board and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and as a member of the medical advisory committee of the South East Metropolitan Hospital Board. She enjoyed gardening, golf, painting and collecting antiques. She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2008 by taking a flight in a glider. Burton-Brown died on 17 September 2009 at the age of 101. She was unmarried. Sarah Gillam