Ruth Runciman
Ruth Runciman, Viscountess Runciman of Doxford DBE (née Hellman; born 9 January 1936), known as Dame Ruth Runciman, is a former Chair of the British Mental Health Act Commission.[1]
Early life
[edit]Ruth Hellman was born to a Jewish family and educated at Roedean School in 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
[edit]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
[edit]Between 1959 and 1962 she was married to Denis Mack Smith, a Cambridge historian of the Italian "Risorgimento".[1]
In 1963, she married 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, was until 2024 a professor of politics at the University of Cambridge.[6]
Honours
[edit]- 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
[edit]- 1 2 Runciman of Doxford, Viscountess; Ruth Runciman. A & C Black. 2001. p. 1809.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ↑ "Noblesse oblige...the Dame done good | Special reports | guardian.co.uk". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
- ↑ "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. 28 March 2000. 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. 26 September 2013. 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
[edit]- 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
- Alumni of Roedean School, South Africa
- Health professionals from London
- Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge
- British Jews
- British social welfare officials
- British women academics
- 20th-century British educators
- 20th-century British women educators
- 21st-century British educators
- British viscountesses by marriage
- Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- People involved with mental health
- Runciman family
- University of the Witwatersrand alumni