Ruth Runciman
Dame Ruth Runciman DBE (née Hellman; born 9 January 1936) is a former Chair of the British Mental Health Act Commission.[1]
Early life
Hellman, as she then was, was educated at Roedean School, Johannesburg, and the Witwatersrand University, also in Johannesburg, where she gained a baccalaureate degree. She then matriculated at Girton College, Cambridge, in England[2]
Career
Runciman became active in public life after marriages and children. In 1981, she was one of the founders of the Prison Reform Trust and was responsible for setting up a full-time Citizens' Advice Bureau in Wormwood Scrubs, the first full-time independent advice agency in any prison. She also became a Trustee of the Pilgrim Trust and the National AIDS Trust (now known as NAT), and chaired it from 2000 to 2006. [3]
For more than three decades, Runciman worked with the Citizens Advice Bureau and made significant contributions to work on drug misuse.[4]
She was Chair of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust for more than ten years, retiring at the end of 2013.[5]
Personal life
Between 1959 and 1962 she was married to Denis Mack Smith, a Cambridge historian of the Italian "Risorgimento".[1]
In 1963, she married secondly the British sociologist Walter Garrison Runciman, becoming Viscountess Runciman of Doxford, a title she does not use. Runciman died on 10 December 2020. Their son David, who then inherited the peerage, is a professor of politics at the University of Cambridge.[6]
Honours
- Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 1991.
- Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1998, for services to mental health.[7]
- Honorary Fellow of the University of Central Lancashire, 2000.[8]
References
- ^ a b Runciman of Doxford, Viscountess; Ruth Runciman. A & C Black. 2001. p. 1809.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ "Person Page". thepeerage.com.
- ^ "Truestees' Report and Accounts" (PDF). The Pilgrim Trust.
- ^ "Drugs and the Law: 'REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT INQUIRY INTO THE MISUSE OF DRUGS ACT 1971". The Police Foundation. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
- ^ "New chair for NHS Foundation Trust who will overlook centres in Milton Keynes". MK Web. 11 January 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
- ^ "David Runciman". Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Cambridge. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^ "Queen's Birthday honours 1998". The Independent. 12 June 1998.
- ^ "Honorary Fellows 1992-2009 Fellows". The University of Central Lancashire.
External links
- Profile BBC.co.uk; accessed 12 July 2014.
- Parliament publications #1; accessed 12 July 2014.
- Parliament publications #2; accessed 12 July 2014.
- Central and North West London Mental Health Trust, cnwl.org; accessed 12 July 2014.
- 1936 births
- Living people
- Health professionals from London
- Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge
- British social welfare officials
- British women academics
- British women educators
- 20th-century British educators
- 20th-century British women educators
- 21st-century British educators
- British viscountesses
- Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- People involved with mental health
- Runciman family