Barrie Lambert

Who is Barrie Lambert?

Dame Florence Barraclough Lambert DBE, commonly known as Barrie Lambert or Florence Barrie Lambert, was a British physician and public health administrator.

Lambert was born in Northwick Park, Harrow, London, the daughter of Thomas Henry Lambert, a solicitor and coal importer, and his wife Sarah Ann. She was educated in France and then trained as a nurse at the London Hospital from 1895 to 1898. From 1899 to 1901 she served in the South African War as a nursing sister with the Imperial Yeomanry. On her return to England she trained as a doctor at the London School of Medicine for Women, qualifying as MBBS from the University of Durham in 1906. In 1907 she obtained a Diploma in Public Health from the University of Cambridge.

With a private income, Lambert devoted much time to voluntary child welfare work, becoming honorary director of the Central Council for Infant and Child Welfare, honorary secretary of the Central Council for the Care of Cripples, and a member of council of the Invalid Children's Aid Society. She undertook postgraduate study in physical medicine at the University of Stockholm and then obtained her first paid medical position as physician-in-charge of the mechano-therapeutic department of the Charing Cross Hospital in London and also worked in the departments at St Mary's Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital.