Dorothy Knott was born on 15 April 1914. Educated at St Felix School, Southwold and the London School of Medicine for Women she graduated in 1939. After holding resident appointments at the Three Counties Hospital, Arlesley, which was linked with the Royal Free Hospital under the Emergency Medical Service, she moved to Sheffield, where she held a surgical registrarship at the Royal Infirmary. She returned to London in 1946 and was appointed senior surgical registrar at the Royal Free Hospital; in 1948 she joined the consultant staff on the retirement of Miss E C Lewis, whose cases she took over. Mrs Barclay was a general surgeon, but began to specialise in genito-urinary surgery. She resigned from the staff in 1957 to look after her young family. Those who knew her personally or attended the hospital Christian Union, at which she spoke from time to time, realised that her thoughtfulness and consideration for others sprang from a deep Christian faith. Her teaching was always made practical by graphic illustrations from her own clinical experience. She married in 1949 Dr Oliver Barclay, of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions. Dorothy Barclay lived at 17 Holly Lodge Gardens, London N6, and died on 19 May 1964 at the age of 50, survived by her husband and their four children. A memorial service was held at All Saints Church, Langham Place, on 10 June 1964.