Elaine Murphy, Baroness Murphy

Who is Elaine Murphy, Baroness Murphy?

Elaine Murphy, Baroness Murphy is a British politician and a member of the House of Lords.

After qualifying as a doctor and later teaching as an academic in the National Health Service for 25 years, she spent a period as a Health Service general manager between 1984 and 1990 which included the post of District General Manager for Lewisham and North Southwark Health Authority. Most recently she was Professor of Psychiatry of Old Age at Guy's Hospital, and was Chair of North East London Strategic Health Authority until 30 June 2006. Baroness Murphy is currently a Visiting Professor at Queen Mary University of London, Vice-President of the Alzheimer’s Society, Chair of Council at St George's, University of London, a non-executive member of Monitor, and a member of the BBC Radio 4 listeners panel.

In 2004, she was made a life peer as Baroness Murphy, of Aldgate in the City of London, taking interest in mental health and ageing issues in the House of Lords where she sits as a Crossbencher.

Married to a theoretical chemist, she lives in Norfolk and has homes in London and Lucca, where she grows olives.

In January 2009, it was revealed that she was the author of a hoax letter about "Cello scrotum" that was printed in the British Medical Journal in 1974.