[2] Friend spent much of her professional career at The London Hospital where she received her basic nursing education (circa 1943) and undertook Part I Midwifery Training.
[3] In 1964, The London was the first to install its own computer system; a development in which Friend was heavily involved.
In 1969, she was appointed Chief Nursing Officer at the Department of Health and Social Security in London in 1969,[4] a post she held until she retired in 1982.
It results from a donation by Dame Phyllis herself to the Nursing Specialist Group, part of the Health Informatics Forum of the British Computer Society.
[9] Friend died on 24 June 2013 in Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow after a long period of ill health.