Ruth Frances Darwin

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(20 August 1883 – 15 October 1972) was Commissioner of the

Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency The Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency was a body overseeing the treatment of the mentally ill in England and Wales. It was created by the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 to replace the Commissioners in Lunacy, under the Home Office howe ...

and an advocate of

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

Career

Darwin was appointed to the Board of Control, as an unpaid member, in 1921, replacing

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, the ...

.''The Times'', Tuesday, 19 April 1921; pg. 4; Issue 42698; col F She retired from the Board of Control in 1949. In 1929, with money from the estate of her father who had died in 1928, she founded the Darwin TrustNot to be confused with the modern-day Charles Darwin Trust to foster research into "mental defect, disease or disorder". In 1932 she was appointed to the

Brock Committee Brock may refer to: Businesses * Brock Motors, a short-lived automotive company founded in 1921 in Amherstberg, Ontario * Crowne Plaza Niagara Falls – Fallsview also known as the Brock Hotel, a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario * Brock Hotel Cor ...

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chaired by Sir Laurence Brock) that produced the Brock Report that called for the

forced sterilisation Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced or coerced sterilization, is a government-mandated program to involuntarily sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's capacity to reproduce, and is usually done throug ...

of " mental defectives". She was appointed a

in 1938.

Family connections

Darwin was the middle child and elder daughter of

Sir 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 ...

, through whom she was a granddaughter of the naturalist

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 ...

(she was born a year after Charles's death in 1882). Her mother, The Hon. Ida Farrer (1854–1946), was the daughter of

Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer (24 June 1819 – 11 October 1899), was an English civil servant and statistician. Background and early life Farrer was the son of Thomas Farrer, a solicitor in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Born in London, he was ...

. Her younger sister

Nora Nora, NORA, or Norah may refer to: * Nora (name), a feminine given name People with the surname * Arlind Nora (born 1980), Albanian footballer * Pierre Nora (born 1931), French historian Places Australia * Norah Head, New South Wales, headlan ...

, later became Lady Barlow after marrying

Sir Alan Barlow, 2nd Baronet 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 ...

, while her elder brother

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

was killed during the

Second Battle of Ypres During the First World War, the Second Battle of Ypres was fought from for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the pre ...

in 1915. In 1948, she married the Welsh psychiatrist

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 ...

, who was a colleague of hers on the Board of Control. She died in 1972, predeceasing her husband.

References

''The Times'', Tuesday, 19 April 1921; pg. 4; Issue 42698; col F House Of Commons ''

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 ...

'' Friday, 10 June 1932; pg. 7; Issue 46156; col B

Burke's Landed Gentry ''Burke's Landed Gentry'' (originally titled ''Burke's Commoners'') is a reference work listing families in Great Britain and Ireland who have owned rural estates of some size. The work has been in existence from the first half of the 19th cent ...

: Darwin, formerly of Downe http://www.burkespeerage.com/FamilyHomepage.aspx?FID=3423 http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/34518/supplements/3697 Obituary: Mrs W. Rees-Thomas, ''The Times'', Monday, 16 October 1972; pg. 14; Issue 58606; col F Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Casualty details.
Darwin, Erasmus.
''CWGC.org''. Retrieved 15 September 2015. Daniel J. Kevles "In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity" ‘DARWIN, Ruth Frances’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 200
accessed 27 Dec 2012
/ref> ‘REES-THOMAS, William’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 200
accessed 27 Dec 2012
/ref> ''The Times'', Thursday, 15 September 1949; pg. 7; Issue 51487; col D {{DEFAULTSORT:Darwin, Ruth 1883 births 1972 deaths 19th-century British medical doctors 20th-century British medical doctors British psychiatrists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire British women psychiatrists