An accomplished and successful obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dame Josephine was also known to the wider world for her devotion to social and educational reform, and was seen by many as an exemplar for the role of professional women in modern society. Josephine Barnes, happily known to her family and friends as 'Jo', was born on 18 August 1912, the daughter of a Methodist minister who adhered to the strictest tenets of his faith. It was only with difficulty that she was allowed to study medicine. She went up to Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford in 1930, winning a blue in hockey and a first in physiology. During her student clinical years at University College Hospital she distinguished herself with a clutch of gold medals, and found her mission in life when she saw at first hand the living conditions of working class women. She qualified in 1937 and quickly assembled a dazzling array of postgraduate diplomas. As obstetric registrar at University College Hospital she played a vital part in the 'flying squad', dealing with emergencies 'on the district' and was soon appointed to the Marie Curie and the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospitals. In 1954 she became consultant to the Charing Cross Hospital and in the medical school there added medical education to the many causes she supported. She played an important part in a host of crusading movements for women's rights and was a member, often the secretary and ultimately the president of, among others, the Medical Women's Federation, the National Association of Family Planning Doctors and the Women's National Cancer Control Campaign. In all these her advice was respected as level-headed and practical. The enormous scope of her public work was recognised in 1974 by the award of DBE and honorary degrees were showered upon her by Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester and Oxford Universities. She became Vice-President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and in 1979 was the first woman to be President of the BMA. In old age she continued her devotion to voluntary work and the presidency of the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund gave her great pleasure. In 1942 she married Brian Warren, also a doctor. She ran the household as well as her own considerable practice, and brought up two daughters, Penny and Amanda, and a son, Antony, a GP in Cambridge. The marriage was dissolved in 1964. In later years she suffered considerably from asthma, but retained her enthusiasms and her intellectual capacity until the end. She died on 28 December 1999.