Rachel Pinney (11 July 1909 – 19 October 1995) was a British medical doctor who pioneered therapeutic approaches to children's development in the 1960s which she termed "Creative Listening" and "Children's Hours". From 1927 to 1934 she was a member of the clandestine

Ferguson's Gang Ferguson's Gang, formed during a picnic at Tothill Fields in London in 1927, was an anonymous and somewhat enigmatic group that raised funds for the National Trust from 1930 to 1947. The members hid their identities behind resplendent masks, punny ...

, a group of eccentric philanthropists who donated money to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

and other rural conservation appeals. In her alter-ego as Red Biddy, Pinney, cloaked and masked, delivered Ferguson's Gang's first donation to the National Trust offices in 1933. The delivery of £100 in silver for the endowment of

Shalford Mill Shalford Mill is an 18th-century Grade II* listed watermill located on the River Tillingbourne in Shalford, near Guildford, Surrey, England. In 1932, the mill was endowed to the National Trust by a group of eccentric young female philanthropis ...

to the National Trust was reported in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''. Unorthodox in many ways, Pinney kept a vow of silence on Wednesdays, and was a committed

peace activist A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...

Life

Her father,

Reginald Pinney Major-General Sir Reginald John Pinney (2 August 1863 – 18 February 1943) was a British Army officer who served as a divisional commander during the First World War. While commanding a division at the Battle of Arras in 1917, he was imm ...

, was a

major-general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

in the British army. She obtained a medical degree and practiced as a GP until 1961, as well as acting s a police surgeon. She worked with the distinguished child therapist Dr.

Margaret Lowenfeld Margaret Frances Jane Lowenfeld (4 February 1890 – 2 February 1973) was a British pioneer of child psychology and play therapy, a medical researcher in paediatric medicine, and an author of several publications and academic papers on the study ...

, but never trained formally. She pioneered "methods for conflict understanding" which she called "Creative Listening" and "Children's Hours", the former incorporated as a limited company in 1967. She toured Britain in the early 1960s inviting people to share their views on controversial subjects such as

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

law reform and

nuclear warfare Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear ...

while she used her structured listening technique. Her child techniques were widely used by experts working therapeutically with children. In September 1970, she was sent to prison for nine months for the offence of keeping and maintaining a child out of England against his mother's will, after sending a 14-year-old boy to live in Canada without his mother's consent.''The Ottawa Journal'', p. 30, 9 September 1970
- In 1977, Pinney went to New York and treated a four-year-old boy who had

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

. This resulted in her publication ''Bobby, Breakthrough of an Autistic Child'' (1983). She was briefly married to Luigi Cocuzzi with whom she had one daughter and two sons. She was a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

and a member of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucle ...

from 1961. She openly declared herself a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

in 1989. She died on 19 October 1995 aged 86.

Bibliography

* Rachel Pinney, ''Creative Listening'' (1970) * Rachel Pinney, Mimi Schlachter, Anthea Courtenay, ''Bobby: Breakthrough of a Special Child'', HarperCollins (1983)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinny, Rachel 1909 births 1995 deaths 20th-century British psychologists 20th-century Quakers 20th-century British LGBT people British psychotherapists British Quakers Child psychologists Developmental psychologists British lesbians