Born on 8 March 1894, the daughter of John and Agnes Collier, Josephine Collier was educated at the Convent of Notre Dame, Southport, the University of Oxford, and University College Hospital, where she qualified in 1922. She was house surgeon at King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor, and later successively house surgeon, registrar and first assistant in the Ear, Nose and Throat department at University College Hospital and registrar at the Central London Throat and Ear Hospital. She became FRCS in 1932. She was consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital and to the South London Hospital for Women and an associate lecturer at the Institute of Laryngology and Otology. During the second world war she served in North Africa and Italy as specialist otologist with the rank of Major in the RAMC. She was a Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1939, President of the Section of Otology of the Royal Society of Medicine, and member of council of the Medical Women's Federation. She was joint author with Sir Douglas MacLaggan of *Diseases of the ear, nose and throat*, 1952. Josephine Collier's main professional interest was in otology and especially in the reparative surgery of facial nerve paralysis. She was versatile and enterprising and had a great variety of outside interests. She gave her assistance in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 and was instrumental in bringing Professor Joseph Trueta and his family from Barcelona to England. She was a seasoned traveller and with a Spanish woman friend she made several hazardous expeditions up the Orinoco, her special attraction to this river being explained by her as due to its having two right-angled bends like the facial nerve. She was an elegant, discerning, highly educated and artistic lady, a perfectionist in personal and professional life.