THE sociologist Barbara Shenfield and her husband, the economist Arthur Shenfield, enjoyed close links with a number of right-wing think-tanks, including the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Adam Smith Institute, the Locke Institute and the Heritage Foundation. Through these and other organisations, the couple made a substantial contribution to the free-market ideology so central to the reforms introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s Government during the 1980s.

During the early 1970s Barbara Shenfield becoming one of the co-founders of the University of Buckingham, Britain’s first independently funded university. She served as its academic director between 1972 and 1973 and was a member of its council until 1987, when she was awarded an honorary doctorate.

Despite her right-wing views, Shenfield was always concerned for the disadvantaged. In 1976 she turned her back on her academic career to become the vice-chairman of the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service, the organisation best known for providing “meals on wheels” to the elderly. Five years later, she succeeded Baroness Pike as the WRVS’s national chairman, a post she held until 1988.

The youngest of five children, Barbara Estelle Farrow was born in the Birmingham suburb of Smethwick in 1919. Both her father and grandfather had been directors of the engineering company Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds.

She attended Langley High School, becoming captain of the school as well as the hockey and tennis teams. She then read social and political science at the University of Birmingham, where she met Gwilym Lewis, the president of the students union. They married in May 1941. Barely three months later, Flight Lieutenant Lewis was killed in action flying his Blenheim bomber on a daylight bombing raid. He left behind a pregnant widow who gave birth to a son in April 1942.

Barbara Lewis threw herself into work, serving for two years as an organiser for the Women’s Land Army for Staffordshire and contributing to a research project on women at work. At the end of the war, she served with the Foreign Office Control Commission in Germany, helping women refugees in Berlin, Dresden and Munich.

At the 1945 general election she stood as the Liberal candidate for Handsworth. Although she was comfortably defeated in what was a safe Labour seat, she had enough votes to avoid losing her deposit. In 1946 she joined Birmingham University as a lecturer in social studies. Five years later, she married Arthur Shenfield, by whom she would have a second son, in 1957.

In 1959 Barbara Shenfield became a lecturer with the Department of Economics and Social Studies at Bedford College, London. She was appointed Visiting Professor of Social Work by Michigan State University the following year. She later served as a consultant to the US Department of Labour and spent three years as Visiting Professor of Sociology at Rockford College, Illinois.

In 1970 Shenfield became director of the Department of Health and Social Security’s study into the use of voluntary services for the elderly. The following year, she joined a government committee on the abuse of welfare services and became chairman of the National Executive of the National Old People’s Welfare Council (the forerunner of Age Concern).

In 1972 she served as vice-president of the international group of intellectuals known as the Mont Pelerin Society. Her husband was the society’s president that year. Though they shared an unshakeable belief in the merits of competition, self-help and individual freedom, the Shenfields contrasted sharply in character. Brilliant but austere, Arthur Shenfield cut a somewhat intimidating figure. His wife was known for her grace, charm and constant consideration for others.

After standing down from the WRVS, Barbara Shenfield remained as energetic as ever, serving from 1990 until 2003 as a trustee of the Social Affairs Unit, the think-thank that seeks to challenge established social, economic and cultural concepts. In 1991, at the age of 72, she took on the role of chairman of the Friends of the Imperial War Museum. She later became a founder patron of Hope and Homes for Children and completed a six-year spell as chairman of the Pornography and Anti-Violence Trust.

Barbara Shenfield was the author of numerous books, including Social Policies for Old Age (1957), Social Responsibilities of Company Boards (1971) and The Organisation of a Voluntary Service (1972). She was appointed dame in 1986.

Her second husband died in 1990, and she is survived by her two sons.

Dame Barbara Shenfield, DBE, sociologist, was born on March 9, 1919. She died on June 17, 2004, aged 85.