Dorothy Ridout was an obstetrician and gynaecologist, and later a general practitioner in Leeds. She was born in Southsea, Hampshire, the sixth of nine children of Charles Archibald Scott Ridout, a GP surgeon in Portsmouth, and Gladys Mary Ridout née Hooper. Medicine was in the family: Dorothy, with her brother and sister, became the fourth successive generation of doctors. She was educated at Portsmouth High School for Girls and then Cheltenham Ladies' College, before entering the Royal Free Medical School. After qualifying in 1943, she chose to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology. She was a registrar at Northampton General Hospital and at the Central Middlesex Hospital, and a senior registrar in gynaecology at the Royal Free. She gained her membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1951, and her FRCS in 1952. She then made a change in her career path and became a general practitioner in Harrogate, but maintained her special interest in gynaecology, with posts in local hospitals and clinics. In 1955 she met Douglas Shortridge, a master tanner and company director, and they married in June 1959. Dorothy moved with her husband to Leeds, where she continued in general practice and held an associate specialist post at St James's Hospital. Her contribution was recognised by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists with the award of her fellowship in 1986. Her interests away from medicine were bee keeping and local politics. Her husband died in 1996, and in widowhood she became an avid traveller, until she had a stroke in 2009. She died on 17 January 2013 at the age of 92, and was survived by her son, Andrew.