Loading AI tools
British mental health worker From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Dame Ellen Pinsent DBE | |
---|---|
Born | Ellen Frances Parker 26 March 1866 Claxby, Lincolnshire, England |
Died | 10 October 1949 |
Citizenship | United Kingdom |
Occupation | Mental health worker |
Spouse | Hume Chancellor Pinsent |
Children |
|
Parents |
|
Relatives | Robert Parker, Baron Parker of Waddington (brother) Edgar Adrian (son-in-law) |
Ellen Frances Parker was born in Claxby, Lincolnshire, the daughter of the Rev. Richard Parker and his second wife, Elizabeth Coffin.[1] Her brother Robert Parker was a barrister and a chancery judge.[2] In 1888, she married Hume Chancellor Pinsent (1857–1920), a relative of the philosopher David Hume, and they had three children.[3] Their two sons, David Hume Pinsent and Richard Parker Pinsent,[4] were killed in the First World War, and their daughter, Hester, a mental health worker, married the Nobel-prize winner Edgar Douglas Adrian, a peer. Lady Hester Adrian would be named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[5][6]
Pinsent chaired the Special School Sub-Committee of the Birmingham Schools Committee from 1901 to 1913.[7][8] In 1904, she was the sole female member of the Commission on the Care and Control of the Feebleminded.[5][9]
On 1 November 1911, Ellen Pinsent was the first woman elected to serve on Birmingham City Council.[7] She represented the Edgbaston Ward as a Liberal Unionist.[7] She stood down from the council in October 1913 upon appointment as commissioner on the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency.[7][10]
Pinsent worked for many years with the Central Association for Mental Welfare.[5] She was a founder of the National Association for the Care of the Feebleminded, an active member of the Eugenic Education Society,[11][12] and served on the general committee of the First International Eugenic Conference. Her support for eugenic policies is reflected in the provisions of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913.[2][3] She was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1937.[1]
Pinsent also wrote fiction, including the novels Jenny's Case, No Place for Repentance, Job Hildred, and Children of this World.[1]
Dame Ellen Pinsent died in 1949, aged 83 years, and her funeral was held in Wootton, Staffordshire.[5] The Dame Ellen Pinsent Special Primary School (for children with learning disabilities) in Birmingham is named after her.[13]
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.