Ruth Runciman
Quick Facts
Biography
Dame Ruth Runciman DBE (born 9 January 1936) is a former Chair of the UK Mental Health Act Commission.
She is the wife of British sociologist Garry Runciman, as such she can be styled as Viscountess Runciman of Doxford, a title she does not use. Her son David is a political scientist and writer. She served for more than three decades with the Citizens Advice Bureau and made significant contributions to work on drug misuse, for which she was awarded the OBE in 1991, which was later elevated to DBE.
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. The University of Central Lancashire conferred an Honorary Fellowship on Dame Ruth Runciman at an Awards Ceremony in 2000.
She was Chair of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust for more than ten years, retiring at the end of 2013.