After qualifying as a doctor and then as a psychiatrist she later became 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. She was the first professor of psychiatry of old age in the UK, held at the University of London at Guy's Hospital. She took on non-executive roles after retirement and was Chair of North East London Strategic Health Authority until 30 June 2006. She was a visiting professor at Queen Mary University of London, Vice-President of the Alzheimer's Society and Chair of Council at St George's, University of London between 2009 and 2012,[2][failed verification] and was a non-executive member of Monitor (Independent Monitor of NHS Hospitals).
On 17 June 2004, she was made a life peerasBaroness Murphy, of Aldgate in the City of London,[3] taking an interest in mental health and ageing issues in the House of Lords where she sits as a Crossbencher.
She was first married 1969–2000 to John Murphy, the branding 'guru' and brewer and then second, from 2001, to professor Michael A Robb FRS, a theoretical chemist. She lives in Norfolk and has homes in London and Lucca, where she grows olives.[4]
Baroness Murphy also has a PhD in Social History and has published in the field of 18th and 19th century workhouses, madhouses and local history. Her publications include The Moated Grange: A History of South Norfolk Through the Story of one Home, 1300-2000 (2015), about the village of BrockdishinSouth Norfolk. She is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society.[6][failed verification]
