Hester Adrian, Baroness Adrian

Hester Agnes Adrian, Baroness Adrian, DBE (née Pinsent; 16 September 1899 – 20 May 1966) was a British mental health worker.

The Right Honourable

The Baroness Adrian

DBE
Born
Hester Agnes Pinsent

(1899-09-16)16 September 1899
Harborne, Staffordshire, England
Died20 May 1966(1966-05-20) (aged 66)
Cambridge, England
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
OccupationMental health worker
Spouse(s)Edgar Adrian (m. 1923)
Children
Parent(s)

Early life

Hester Agnes Pinsent was born in 1899, in Harborne, Birmingham, Staffordshire, the only daughter of Hume Chancellor Pinsent (a relative of the philosopher David Hume)[1] and his wife Dame Ellen Pinsent (née Parker). Her mother was a social reformer and novelist. When Hester Pinsent was a teenager, both of her brothers, David and Richard, died in World War I.[2]

Pinsent attended Somerville College, Oxford from 1919 to 1922, graduating with second-class honours in modern history.[2]

Career

Hester Adrian lived in Cambridge as the wife of a professor, and a social hostess of the university, welcoming distinguished guests to Trinity College with her husband.[3] She was also active as a volunteer in the Cambridge community. In 1936, she became a justice of the peace in Cambridge. During World War II, she worked for the Women's Voluntary Service in Cambridge, as a billeting officer. She took particular interest in the lives of children in crisis, and after the war she chaired the juvenile panel of the Cambridge magistrates' courts from 1949 to 1958. She joined the management committee of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, and in 1959 became president of the Howard League for Penal Reform.[2]

Adrian was also active in mental health and special education organizations.[4] She was honorary secretary of the Cambridgeshire Mental Welfare Association from 1924 to 1934.[2] She was vice-chair of the National Association of Mental Health (now known as MIND). The Hester Adrian Research Centre at the University of Manchester was established in 1968, to "conduct research into psychological and educational factors that affect the development of mentally handicapped children and adults".[5][6][7]

Personal life

Hester Pinsent married Edgar Douglas Adrian on 14 June 1923. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1932, and he was President of the Royal Society from 1950–1955.[8] They had three children:

In 1942, she injured her leg badly, and it was amputated above the knee. She used a prosthetic leg thereafter. In 1965, she was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her contributions.[10] Hester Adrian died at her Cambridge home in 1966, aged 66 years.[2]

References
  1. McComas, Alan (2011-08-08). Galvani's Spark: The Story of the Nerve Impulse. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-19-975175-4.
  2. Thom, D. "Adrian [née Pinsent], Hester Agnes, Lady Adrian (1899–1966), penal reformer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-65865. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
  3. "Royal Visitors at Cambridge". The Guardian. 1960-07-22. p. 7. Retrieved 2020-03-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Lady Adrian to Lead New Council". The Guardian. 1964-02-14. p. 2. Retrieved 2020-03-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Hester Adrian Research Centre Collection". Archives Hub. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
  6. Mittler, Peter (September 1979). "The Hester Adrian Research Centre: An overview". International Journal of Rehabilitation Research. 2 (3): 401–408. ISSN 0342-5282.
  7. Moorehead, Caroline (23 October 1970). "Manchester's bridge with the subnormal". The Times Educational Supplement: 12 – via ProQuest.
  8. "Baron Edgar Adrian, 87, a Pioneer in Physiology". The Miami Herald. 1977-08-07. p. 66. Retrieved 2020-03-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Peter Townend, ed., Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition (London, U.K.: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1970), p. 27
  10. "New Year Honours". The Guardian. 1965-01-01. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-03-27 – via Newspapers.com.
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