Dame Hester Agnes Adrian, Baroness Adrian, (' Pinsent; 16 September 1899 – 20 May 1966) was a British mental health worker.
Early life
Hester Agnes Pinsent was born in 1899, in
Harborne
Harborne is an affluent area sited south-west of Birmingham, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is a Birmingham City Council ward (politics), ward in the Government of Birmingham, England#Districts, formal district and ...
, Birmingham, Staffordshire, the only daughter of Hume Chancellor Pinsent (a relative of the philosopher
David Hume
David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...
) and his wife Dame
Ellen Pinsent (
née
The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
Parker). Her mother was a social reformer and novelist. When Hester Pinsent was a teenager, both of her brothers,
David
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
and Richard, died in
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.
Pinsent attended
Somerville College, Oxford
Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...
, from 1919 to 1922, graduating with second-class honours in modern history.
Career
Hester Adrian lived in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
as the wife of a professor (who was also Master of Trinity College from 1951–1965), and a social hostess of the university, welcoming distinguished guests to
Trinity College with her husband. She was also active as a volunteer in the Cambridge community. In 1936, she became a
justice of the peace in Cambridge. During World War II, she worked for the
Women's Voluntary Service
The Royal Voluntary Service (known as the Women's Voluntary Services (WVS) from 1938 to 1966; Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) from 1966 to 2004 and WRVS from 2004 to 2013) is a voluntary organisation concerned with helping people in need ...
in Cambridge, as a billeting officer. She took particular interest in the lives of children in crisis, and after the war she chaired the juvenile panel of the Cambridge magistrates' courts from 1949 to 1958. She joined the management committee of the
Cambridge Institute of Criminology
The Institute of Criminology is the criminological research institute within the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. The Institute is one of the oldest criminological research institutes in Europe, and has exerted a strong influence ...
, and in 1959 became president of the
Howard League for Penal Reform
The Howard League for Penal Reform is a registered charity in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest penal reform organisation in the world, named after John Howard. It was founded as the Howard Association in 1866 and changed its name in 1921 ...
.
Adrian was also active in mental health and
special education
Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, and SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual di ...
organizations. She was honorary secretary of the Cambridgeshire Mental Welfare Association from 1924 to 1934.
She was vice-chair of the
National Association of Mental Health (now known as MIND). The Hester Adrian Research Centre at the
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
was established in 1968, to "conduct research into psychological and educational factors that affect the development of mentally handicapped children and adults".
Personal life
Hester Pinsent married
Edgar Douglas Adrian
Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian (30 November 1889 – 4 August 1977) was an English electrophysiologist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology, won jointly with Sir Charles Sherrington for work on the function of neurons ...
on 14 June 1923. He won the
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
in Physiology in 1932, and he was
President of the Royal Society
The president of the Royal Society (PRS), also known as the Royal Society of London, is the elected Head of the Royal Society who presides over meetings of the society's council.
After an informal meeting (a lecture) by Christopher Wren at Gres ...
from 1950 to 1955. They had three children:
* Anne Pinsent Adrian, who married the physiologist
Richard Darwin Keynes
*
Richard Hume Adrian, 2nd Baron Adrian (1927–1995)
* Jennet Adrian (born 1927), who married Peter Watson Campbell
In 1942, she injured her leg badly, and it was amputated above the knee. The incident occurred in the
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...
when 'a large rock, about 5 ft. high, suddenly broke away' when her husband took hold of it. The rock 'crushed her leg both above and below the knee'. She used a prosthetic leg thereafter. In 1965, she was created a Dame Commander of the
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(DBE) for her contributions.
Hester Adrian died at her Cambridge home in 1966, aged 66 years.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adrian, Hester Adrian, Baroness
1899 births
1966 deaths
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
British baronesses by marriage
Mental health professionals
People from Harborne
People from Cambridge
Mental health activists
Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford
English justices of the peace