Ruth Frances Darwin

CBE 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 ...

(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 ho ...

and an advocate of

eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...

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 Birmingham City Council. Family Ellen Frances Parker was born in Claxby, Lincolnshire, the da ...

.''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 A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

chaired by

Sir Laurence Brock Sir Laurence George Brock CB (7 May 1879 – 29 April 1949) was a British civil servant. He was chairman of the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency from 1928 to 1945. Brock was born in Islington, London to George William Freder ...

) that produced the

Brock Report The Brock Report or Report of the Departmental Committee on Sterilisation (1934) was a British Parliamentary report advocating for the sterilisation of disabled people. Context In late 19th and early 20th century Britain, supporters of eugenic ...

that called for the

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

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 Darw ...

, through whom she was a granddaughter of the naturalist

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

(she was born a year after Charles's death in 1882). Her mother, The Hon.

Ida Farrer Ida, Lady Darwin (née Farrer; 7 November 1854 – 5 July 1946) was the wife of Sir Horace Darwin, member of the Ladies Dining Society, and a co-founder in 1913 of the Central Association for the Care of the Mentally Defective (in 1921 r ...

(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 e ...

. 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 (1931–2025), French historian * Simon Nora (1921–2006), French politician Place ...

, 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-secret ...

, while her elder brother

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...

was killed during the

Second Battle of Ypres The Second Battle of Ypres was fought from 22 April – 25 May 1915, during the First World War, for control of the tactically-important high ground to the east and the south of the Flanders, Flemish town of Ypres, in western Belgium. The ...

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 ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' 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 cen ...

: Darwin, formerly of Downe http://www.burkespeerage.com/FamilyHomepage.aspx?FID=3423 Issue 34518
''The London Gazette'' Obituary: Mrs W. Rees-Thomas, ''The Times'', Monday, 16 October 1972; pg. 14; Issue 58606; col F 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 20th-century British medical doctors 20th-century British women medical doctors British psychiatrists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire British women psychiatrists British eugenicists British activists British women activists Darwin–Wedgwood family