Obituary: Dr Eileen Crofton, anti-smoking campaigner, 91

Leading anti-smoking campaigner and health advocate Dr Eileen Crofton MBE has died at the age of 91.

Dr Crofton, wife of the TB treatment pioneer John Crofton, was founder member of anti-smoking charity Ash Scotland.

Born Eileen Mercer in 1919, Dr Crofton completed her medical degree at Somerville College, Oxford in 1943.

After a year in a local hospital, she joined the Royal Medical Corps as a Lieutenant and was promoted to Captain. She was posted to Northern Ireland which is where she met her husband.

The couple married at Edinburgh University in 1945 and had two sons and three daughters.

After a career break when she had her children, Dr Crofton undertook research into the epidemiology of heart disease.

She helped set up Action on Smoking and Health in 1971 and went on to found Ash Scotland just two years later.

She worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the harm caused by smoking and for increased tobacco regulation. Along with her husband, who died last year, she campaigned for a ban on smoking in public places long before it became legislation.

Ash Scotland chief executive Sheila Duffy said: "Dr Eileen Crofton, along with her late husband, was a tireless campaigner for tobacco control and for smoke-free public places long before it became legislation. I have always appreciated her advice and support for the work that she started.

"I am thankful that someone so dedicated brought the impact of smoking on the health of people in Scotland and elsewhere to wider public attention. She made a major contribution to the work of tobacco control."

She added: "Eileen will be greatly missed, and the thoughts of everyone at Ash Scotland are with her family."

Dr Crofton was awarded an MBE on her retirement in 1984 and continued to speak and lecture about smoking and campaign for a public places smoking ban long afterwards. She also wrote a critically-acclaimed book, The Women of Royaumont: a Scottish Women's Hospital on the Western Front.

In 2008, the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland, in partnership with Ash Scotland, launched the Crofton Award in recognition of the achievement of young people in reducing tobacco and smoking-related harm in Scotland.

Dr Crofton died peacefully at her Edinburgh home on October 8.