Born Margaret Mary Ferguson in 1907 at Darwen, Lancashire, she was educated at Owen's College Manchester. After qualification she held house appointments and was also lecturer in anatomy and then resident surgical officer at the Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute. In 1937 she married James Forrest Shepherd of the Indian Medical Service. They worked at various stations in India and during the second world war she was surgical specialist RAMC. She was also honorary surgeon, King George Hospital, Vizagapatam, Madras. After the war in 1947, when her husband became a consultant surgeon in Sutton Coldfield, she continued her interest in orthopaedic surgery with a study on the results of hip surgery and the establishment of a procedure for hip assessment on behalf of the British Orthopaedic Association. This work continued at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and Institute of Orthopaedics, London. After her husband's death Margaret joined the department of geriatric medicine at the Norman Day Hospital, Farnham, working as a clinical assistant from 1972 until her death on 3 March 1982.