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.
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
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.
For more than three decades, Runciman worked with the Citizens Advice Bureau and made significant contributions to work on drug misuse.
She was Chair of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust for more than ten years, retiring at the end of 2013.
Personal life
Between 1959 and 1962 she was married to Denis Mack Smith, a Cambridge historian of the Italian "Risorgimento".
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.
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.
- Honorary Fellow of the University of Central Lancashire, 2000.
References
- ^ 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. 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
- 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 social welfare officials
- British women academics
- 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
- University of the Witwatersrand alumni