Margaret Mary Basden was born in Nottingham on 3 April 1886, she was the daughter of Hope, née Figgis, and Duncan Frederick Basden who was a chartered accountant. The family moved to Hampstead while she was still a young child and she attended King Alfred's School. There was a medical tradition in the family that an ancestor had attended George III and Margaret decided, early in life, to study medicine. While she was a medical student at the London School of Medicine for Women the College opened the Fellowship to women and she seized the opportunity and passed the primary examination. She then held a postgraduate post at the London Hospital where she was greatly influenced by the teaching of Sir Hugh Rigby and Dr Russell Andrews and gained her FRCS in 1919. After holding a resident accoucheur appointment at the London Hospital, she decided to take up obstetrics and gynaecology, and she eventually became consultant gynaecological surgeon to the Bethnal Green, and Mildmay Hospitals and obstetric surgeon to the Mother's Hospital, Clapton, and surgeon to the South London Hospital for Women and Children. After retirement she led an active professional life as long as she was able and in 1951 went to Uganda for a time to serve on the staff of the Mengo Hospital in Kampala. Margaret remained an imposing figure in her later years and, making no concessions to changing fashions she brought memories of times past with her dignified appearance and carriage. She was courteous, kindly and generous and one of her chief interests was reading aloud to the blind. She had a great sense of humour and a lively interest in her fellows which made her an excellent raconteur, telling her stories in a deep contralto with an inimitable chuckle. Though her health failed progressively over the last few years she did not allow physical difficulties to interfere with her social life and religious observances, she retained her style to the end. She died on 8 September 1974, aged 88 years and was survived by her two younger sisters.