Ruth Runciman

Dame Ruth Runciman DBE (née Hellman; 9 January 1936) is a former Chair of the UK Mental Health Act Commission.[1]

Dame

Ruth Runciman

DBE
Chair of the UK Mental Health Act Commission

She attended the Rodean School, Johannesburg and graduated from Witwatersrand University, also in Johannesburg, earning her baccalaureate degree. In the UK, she matriculated at Girton College, Cambridge University.[2]

She served for more than three decades with the Citizens Advice Bureau and made significant contributions to work on drug misuse,[3] for which she was awarded the OBE in 1991, which was later elevated to DBE.[4]

Ruth Runciman was an early trustee of the National AIDS Trust (now known as NAT), and served as its Chair from 2000 to 2006. She was a founder of the Prison Reform Trust in 1981. She 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 was also a Trustee of the Pilgrim Trust.[5] The University of Central Lancashire conferred an Honorary Fellowship on Dame Ruth Runciman at an Awards Ceremony in 2000.[6]

She was Chair of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust for more than ten years, retiring at the end of 2013.[7]

Personal life

Between 1959-62 she was married to Denis Mack Smith, a noted historian of the Italian "Risorgimento".[1]

In 1963, she wed British sociologist Walter Garrison "Garry" Runciman, by which union she became the Viscountess Runciman of Doxford, a title she does not use. He died on 10 December 2020. Their son, David, who then inherited the title, is a Professor of Politics and a fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.[8]

References
  1. Runciman of Doxford, Viscountess; Ruth Runciman. Who's Who. A & C Black. 2001. p. 1809.
  2. "Person Page". thepeerage.com.
  3. "Drugs and the Law: 'REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT INQUIRY INTO THE MISUSE OF DRUGS ACT 1971". The Police Foundation. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  4. "Queen's Birthday honours 1998". The Independent. 12 June 1998.
  5. "Truestees' Report and Accounts" (PDF). The Pilgrim Trust.
  6. "Honorary Fellows 1992-2009 Fellows". The University of Central Lancashire.
  7. "New chair for NHS Foundation Trust who will overlook centres in Milton Keynes". MK Web. 11 January 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  8. "David Runciman". Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Cambridge. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
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