British philosopher Baroness Helen Mary (Wilson) Warnock (born 1924) was one of the leading lights in the philosophical community of the 20th century.

Helen Mary Wilson (later Warnock) was born on April 14, 1924, in Winchester, England. She received her formal university education at Oxford and earned both the B.A. and D.Phil. degrees. She was the headmistress of the Oxford High School, 1966-1972, research fellow and tutor at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, 1972-1976, senior research fellow at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, 1976-1984, and mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, England, from 1985 to 1991.

Married to another British philosopher, Sir Geoffrey James Warnock, in 1949, they had three children. She was awarded a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 1984 and was created a baroness a year later.

Over a long career in academia Warnock demonstrated a keen understanding of many and disparate fields of philosophy. Her intellectual interests were broad and...