Ida, Lady Darwin (née Farrer; 7 November 1854 – 5 July 1946) was the wife of

Horace Darwin Sir Horace Darwin, (13 May 1851 – 22 September 1928), was an English engineer specializing in the design and manufacture of precision scientific instruments. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Personal life and education Dar ...

, member of the

Ladies Dining Society The Ladies Dining Society was a private women's dining and discussion club, based at Cambridge University. It was founded in 1890 by the author Louise Creighton and the women's activist Kathleen Lyttelton. Its members, most of whom were marrie ...

, and a co-founder in 1913 of the Central Association for the Care of the Mentally Defective (in 1921 renamed the Central Association for Mental Welfare). Darwin was born Emma Cecilia Farrer and took the name Ida from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale of ''Little Ida's Flowers''. Her father was Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade Thomas Farrer and her mother was Frances Erskine, daughter of the historian and orientalist William Erskine and granddaughter of

James Mackintosh Sir James Mackintosh FRS FRSE (24 October 1765 – 30 May 1832) was a Scottish jurist, Whig politician and Whig historian. His studies and sympathies embraced many interests. He was trained as a doctor and barrister, and worked also as a jou ...

. Thomas Farrer was a friend of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

and, following the death of Frances Farrer, married Katherine Wedgwood, niece of

Emma Darwin Emma Darwin (; 2 May 1808 – 2 October 1896) was an English woman who was the wife and first cousin of Charles Darwin. They were married on 29 January 1839 and were the parents of ten children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Early lif ...

. On 3 January 1880 Ida Farrer married her stepmother's cousin

, youngest son of Charles and Emma Darwin, at

St Mary's, Bryanston Square St Mary's, Bryanston Square, is a Church of England church dedicated to the Virgin Mary on Wyndham Place, Bryanston Square, London. A related Church of England primary school which was founded next to it bears the same name. History St Mary's, ...

. The couple had a son and two daughters: *

Erasmus Darwin IV frame, 2nd Lt. Erasmus Darwin in uniform of The Green Howards. The Menin Gate. Erasmus Darwin MA (7 December 1881 – 24 April 1915) was an English businessman and soldier, killed in the First World War. He was the grandson of the naturalist ...

(7 December 1881 – 24 April 1915) who was killed in the Second Battle of Ypres during the First World War. * Ruth Frances Darwin (1883–1972) who was an advocate of eugenics and married Dr

William Rees-Thomas William Rees-Thomas CB FRCP FRSM (15 June 1887 – 13 April 1978) was a Welsh psychiatrist. He was Medical Senior Commissioner for the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency. Born in Senny, Breconshire, he was educated at County Sc ...

. * Emma Nora Darwin (1885–1989) who edited the 1959 edition of ''

The Autobiography of Charles Darwin ''The Autobiography of Charles Darwin'' is an autobiography by the English naturalist Charles Darwin. Darwin wrote the text, which he entitled ''Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character'', for his family. He states that he starte ...

'' and married the civil servant Sir

Alan Barlow Sir James Alan Noel Barlow, 2nd Baronet (25 December 1881 – 28 February 1968) was a British civil servant and collector of Islamic and Chinese art. He was Principal Private Secretary to Ramsay MacDonald, 1933–1934, and later Under-secretar ...

. Ida and Horace Darwin settled in Cambridge, where they lived at "The Orchards", a 24-room mansion on Huntingdon Road. A full complement of servants gave Darwin the leisure to pursue activities outside the home. In 1883 she was a founding member of the Cambridge Association for the Care of Girls, an organisation that identified working-class girls who were deemed to be wayward or out of control and placed them in domestic service or sent them to training institutions for service, and that also ran recreational clubs for girls. She later joined the

. Darwin was also on the committee of the Cambridge

Charity Organisation Society The Charity Organisation Societies were founded in England in 1869 following the ' Goschen Minute' that sought to severely restrict outdoor relief distributed by the Poor Law Guardians. In the early 1870s a handful of local societies were formed w ...

and in 1908, in response to the recommendations of Royal Commission for the Care and Control of the

Feeble-Minded The term feeble-minded was used from the late 19th century in Europe, the United States and Australasia for disorders later referred to as illnesses or deficiencies of the mind. At the time, ''mental deficiency'' encompassed all degrees of educa ...

, together with

Florence Ada Keynes Florence Ada Keynes (née Brown; 10 March 1861 – 13 February 1958) was an English author, historian and politician. Career Keynes was an early graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge where her contemporaries included the economist Mary Marsha ...

formed a sub-committee to enquire into the number of "defective" children in Borough schools. This sub-committee became the Cambridge Association for the Care of the Feeble-Minded and members included the Mayor of Cambridge, the Regius Professor of Medicine and representatives from the Borough Education Committee, the Eastern Counties Asylum in Colchester and the Cambridge Association for the Care of Girls. The group campaigned for the passage of legislation that would put the recommendations of the Royal Commission into force and organised meetings and conferences. In 1912 the Association, jointly with Cambridge University Eugenics Society, held a meeting in the Guildhall, where

Ellen Pinsent Dame Ellen Frances Pinsent DBE (''née'' Parker; 26 March 1866 – 10 October 1949) was a British mental health worker, and first female member of the Birmingham City Council. Family Ellen Frances Parker was born in Claxby, Lincolnshire, th ...

read a paper on ''Mental Defect and its Social Dangers''. After the Mental Deficiency Act was passed in 1913 the Association merged with the Cambridgeshire Voluntary Association for the Care of the Mentally Defective, which had just been formed by the County Council. This organisation was affiliated to the Central Association for the Care of the Mentally Defective (later the Central Association for Mental Welfare). Darwin was a vice-president of the Central Association for Mental Welfare and as such was a signatory to a letter to '' The Times'' in 1929 calling for the segregation and supervision of existing defectives and an inquiry into the causes of mental deficiency:

"Since its formation in 1914 the Central Association for Mental Welfare has on numerous occasion drawn public attention to the social problem presented by mental deficiency and to the grave consequences and serious cost entailed by the presence of mental defectives in the community".

Although Darwin reduced her public commitments following the death of her son in 1915, she maintained links with the Central Association for Mental Welfare until the end of her life. Darwin died 5 July 1946 and is buried in Cambridge at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground along with her husband. She had an obituary in ''The Times'', with a further note by Leslie Scott Leslie Scott KC Hon. Lady Darwin. Obituaries, ''The Times'', Tuesday, 16 July 1946; pg. 7; Issue 50504; col E. who described her as "one of the pioneers in this country in the field of social work". The Ida Darwin Hospital, built in the 1960s on the Fulbourn Hospital site, was named in her honour. She also has an iris, Mrs Horace Darwin, named after her.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Darwin, Ida 1854 births 1946 deaths Daughters of barons