[1] Her parents were Thomas Southey Baker (1848–1902), an English schoolteacher who played for England in the unofficial football international match against Scotland on 18 November 1871,[2] and his wife Josephine Dicken.
[4] In 1905 she began a three year post as sole medical officer in general practice at Te Kōpuru, near Dargaville, Northland where she was well-liked.
She found school medicine rewarding, seeing how a child's life could be improved once dental, eyesight and deafness problems were addressed.
[5] Seven years later, in a report to the Canterbury Education Board, McLaglan warned that the dangers of goitre in school children still persisted.
During World War II she worked in hospitals in Timaru, Wanganui and Wellington, as a house surgeon and registrar and finally found that she was respected by younger male doctors.