Margaret Dix was born in 1902, the daughter of a Shropshire rector. She was educated at Sherborne and the Royal Free School of Medicine, where she qualified in 1937. She was appointed house surgeon to Douglas McLaggan and seemed set for a distinguished future in the profession. She was an outstandingly beautiful woman with fine features and sparkling eyes, but tragically she suffered severe facial disfigurement in an air-raid during the Blitz in 1940. She was fortunate to be treated by Sir Archibald McIndoe, who performed plastic surgery on her, and by Jean Dollar, an ophthalmologist. Fragments of glass however lodged in her eyes and prevented her from continuing her surgical career. In 1945 she joined the MRC Otological Research Unit at the National Hospital, Queen Square, London, carrying out research on deafness in ex-servicemen. This led her on to a career in neuro-otology, investigating diseases of the inner ear and its central nervous pathways, and pioneering what was initially a new branch of medicine at that time. Her courage and determination were shown by her achievements and distinctions. A consultant neuro-otologist was heard to remark of her 'what a lovely lady - she taught me nearly all I knew'. She published over 100 articles on a wide range of auditory, vestibular and neurological conditions, and received international recognition and numerous prizes for her work. These included the W J Harrison prize in otology in 1954, the R S M Dalby prize in 1958 and the Norman Gamble research prize in 1980. She was appointed honorary consultant to the National Hospital in 1965 and worked there until her retirement in 1976. She was an honorary member of the Barany Society and a member of the prestigious international Collegium Otorhinolaryngology Amicitiae Sacrum. In her spare time she was an accomplished painter, and she enjoyed writing poetry. Her own wartime experiences and those of her deaf mother made her especially sensitive to the needs of her patients, by whom she was universally admired and loved. She died aged 89 on 9 December 1991.