Janet Parker, a British medical photographer, became the last recorded person to die from smallpox. She passed away in the Catherine-de-Barnes Isolation Hospital. It was found that while working at the University of Birmingham Medical School, she was accidentally exposed to a strain of smallpox virus that had been grown in a research laboratory on the floor below her workplace, and that the virus had most likely spread from that laboratory through ducting. Her mother, Hilda, also contracted smallpox but survived. Her father, Frederick, passed away from a heart attack while visiting his daughter at the hospital.

Janet was born in March 1938, the only daughter of Frederick and Hilda Witcomb (née Linscott). She was married to Joseph Parker, a Post Office engineer.

Janet Parker, a British medical photographer, became the last recorded person to die from smallpox. She passed away in the Catherine-de-Barnes Isolation Hospital. It was found that while working at the University of Birmingham Medical School, she was accidentally exposed to a strain of smallpox virus that had been grown in a research laboratory on the floor below her workplace, and that the virus had most likely spread from that laboratory through ducting. Her mother, Hilda, also contracted smallpox but survived. Her father, Frederick, passed away from a heart attack while visiting his daughter at the hospital.

Janet was born in March 1938, the only daughter of Frederick and Hilda Witcomb (née Linscott). She was married to Joseph Parker, a Post Office engineer.