Isabella Forshall was born and spent her childhood in affluent surroundings in Sussex. Details of her family are not recorded but she was educated privately at home where her mother, who read classics at Girton College, Cambridge in the 1890s, had a powerful influence, imbuing her with a keen appreciation of art and literature and especially of poetry. It might be regarded as surprising that a young woman of her time and background eventually embarked on a career in surgery. Though never encouraged nor, indeed, discouraged to think of a professional career, it is clear that her parents expected her to make observance of her social responsibilities her first priority. And so she entered the Royal Free Hospital Medical School where she graduated in 1927. There is no record of her first hospital appointments but she became house surgeon at the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital in 1929, and later at Alder Hey Children's Hospital where she worked until her retirement in 1965. Whilst surgical registrar at Alder Hey in 1939, she became honorary assistant surgeon at Birkenhead and Wirral Children's Hospital and at Waterloo General Hospital. In 1942 she was appointed honorary surgeon at the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital. Only at the end of the second world war was she able to achieve her ambitions for paediatric surgery. She gathered around her a group of young people in paediatrics and the associated specialities whom she fired with her own enthusiasm. This resulted in notable advances in the surgical care of children and in the foundation of the Liverpool Neonatal Surgical Centre in 1953. The mortality for infants surgically treated for congenital abnormalities in the Liverpool region fell dramatically during the next few years, and it was not long before a Ministry of Health report on neonatal surgery strongly recommended the establishment of similar units in all regions. Her achievements in Liverpool brought her national and international recognition. In 1958 she became the second President of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons and the next year she was President of the Section of Paediatrics of the Royal Society of Medicine. She was elected to honorary membership of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons and of the British Paediatric Association in 1963 when she was also President of the Liverpool Medical Institution. In 1970 she was awarded the honorary degree of master of surgery of the University of Liverpool. She was a most kindly woman who was without personal ambition and often gave her associates more credit for joint achievements than they deserved. Those who enjoyed her friendship quickly learnt of her warmth, her abhorrence of pomposity, her mischievous sense of humour, her concern for all and especially for the better care of children. She was amongst the first to embark on the now widely accepted and enlightened approach to the hospital care of children. Throughout her busy working life she devoted every spare moment to the care of her beautiful garden and she continued this absorbing interest during her many years of retirement in Sussex where she died on 10 August 1989.