Ruth Darwin
{{Short description|British psychiatrist (1883–1972)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ruth Darwin
| birth_date = 20 August 1883
| death_date = 15 October 1972
| nationality = British
| known_for = Eugenics activism
| boards = Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency
| spouse = {{marriage|William Rees-Thomas|1948}}
| parents = Sir Horace Darwin
The Hon. Ida Farrer
| family = Darwin–Wedgwood family
| awards = CBE (1938)
}}{{Eugenics sidebar}}
Ruth Frances Darwin CBE (20 August 1883 – 15 October 1972) was Commissioner of the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency and an advocate of eugenics.
Career
Darwin was appointed to the Board of Control, as an unpaid member, in 1921, replacing Ellen Pinsent.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 (a Parliamentary committee chaired by Sir Laurence Brock) that produced the Brock Report that called for the forced sterilisation of "mental defectives".
She was appointed a CBE in 1938.
Family connections
Darwin was the middle child and elder daughter of Sir Horace Darwin, through whom she was a granddaughter of the naturalist Charles Darwin (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. Her younger sister Nora, later became Lady Barlow after marrying Sir Alan Barlow, 2nd Baronet, while her elder brother Erasmus was killed during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915.
In 1948, she married the Welsh psychiatrist William Rees-Thomas, who was a colleague of hers on the Board of Control. She died in 1972, predeceasing her husband.
References
House Of Commons The Times Friday, 10 June 1932; pg. 7; Issue 46156; col B
Burke's Landed Gentry: Darwin, formerly of Downe http://www.burkespeerage.com/FamilyHomepage.aspx?FID=3423
[http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/34518/supplements/3697 Issue 34518] The London Gazette
Obituary: Mrs W. Rees-Thomas, The Times, Monday, 16 October 1972; pg. 14; Issue 58606; col F
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Daniel J. Kevles "In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity"
The Times, Thursday, 15 September 1949; pg. 7; Issue 51487; col D
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Category:20th-century British medical doctors
Category:20th-century British women medical doctors
Category:British psychiatrists
Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:British women psychiatrists