Erasmus Darwin Barlow
Encyclopedia
Erasmus Darwin Barlow FRCPsych FZS (15 April 1915 – 2 August 2005) was a British psychiatrist
, physiologist and businessman.
Born in London
in 1915, he was the second son of Sir Alan Barlow
, son of Sir Thomas Barlow, royal physician. His mother was Lady Nora Barlow
, daughter of Sir Horace Darwin
. He was a great-grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin
. He was named after his great-great-great-grandfather Erasmus Darwin
. His elder brother was Commodore Sir Thomas Erasmus Barlow
, a younger brother is Horace Barlow
.
He was educated at Marlborough College
, and Trinity College, Cambridge
, where he studied medicine
. He also studied at University College London
. He married Brigit Ursula Hope Black (known as Biddy), daughter of the author Ladbroke Black
in 1938. They had three children:
Barlow was senior lecturer and honorary consultant in psychological medicine at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School (1951–66), vice chairman of the Mental Health
Research Fund, and a member of the scientific staff of the MRC
Department of Clinical Research, University College Hospital
. He was chairman of the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering and an enthusiastic founding member of the Erasmus Darwin
Foundation at Lichfield
. He was also, at various times, chairman of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company
(CIC) - the firm founded by his maternal grandfather
, and a director of CIC Investment Holdings, deputy chairman of George Kent Ltd and a director of Group Investors Ltd.
Barlow published research papers in physiology
and psychiatric medicine
. Additionally, he was a Founder Fellow of the Zoological Society of London
and its Secretary between 1980 and 1982. In 2008 the society started the Erasmus Darwin Barlow Conservation Expeditions named in his honour.
Barlow was also a trustee for over 20 years of the Barlow Collection of Oriental art collected by his father. In 1997 Barlow, along with his brother Sir Thomas Barlow, 3rd Baronet were both awarded honorary Doctors of Letters degrees by the University of Sussex
, who were bequeathed the Barlow Collection in 1968 on the death of Sir Alan
Barlow died in Cambridge
from renal failure
in 2005.
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
, physiologist and businessman.
Born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1915, he was the second son of Sir Alan Barlow
Alan Barlow
Sir James Alan Noel Barlow, 2nd Baronet GCB KBE FSA was a British civil servant and collector of Islamic and Chinese art.- Biography :...
, son of Sir Thomas Barlow, royal physician. His mother was Lady Nora Barlow
Nora Barlow
Emma Nora Barlow was the granddaughter of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, who edited and published previously unseen examples of her grandfather's work.- Biography :...
, daughter of Sir Horace Darwin
Horace Darwin
Sir Horace Darwin, KBE, FRS , a son of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, was a civil engineer.Darwin was born in Down House in 1851, the fifth son and ninth child of the British naturalist Charles Darwin and his wife Emma, the youngest of their seven children that survived to adulthood.He was...
. He was a great-grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. He was named after his great-great-great-grandfather Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down George III's invitation to be a physician to the King. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave trade abolitionist,inventor and poet...
. His elder brother was Commodore Sir Thomas Erasmus Barlow
Thomas Erasmus Barlow
Commodore Sir Thomas Erasmus Barlow, 3rd Baronet DSC DL was an officer in the Royal Navy.- Biography :Barlow was the eldest son of the Sir Alan Barlow, 2nd Bt, and his wife Nora Darwin. His younger brother was the visual neuroscientist Horace Barlow...
, a younger brother is Horace Barlow
Horace Barlow
Horace Basil Barlow FRS is a British visual neuroscientist.Barlow is the son of the civil servant Sir Alan Barlow and his wife Lady Nora, , and thus the great-grandson of Charles Darwin . He earned an M.D...
.
He was educated at Marlborough College
Marlborough College
Marlborough College is a British co-educational independent school for day and boarding pupils, located in Marlborough, Wiltshire.Founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, the school now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. Currently there are just over 800...
, and Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, where he studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
. He also studied at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
. He married Brigit Ursula Hope Black (known as Biddy), daughter of the author Ladbroke Black
Ladbroke Black
Ladbroke Lionel Day Black was an English journalist and author who wrote mysteries, fantasy and science fiction stories often under pseudonyms such as Lionel Day, Lewis Jackson and Paul Urquhart....
in 1938. They had three children:
- Jeremy Barlow (b.1939), flautist and Director of the Broadside Band, married Jane Marian Hollowood
- Camilla Barlow (b.1942), married Martin Christopher Mitcheson OBE, doctor, and later Anthony Whitworth-JonesAnthony Whitworth-JonesAnthony Whitworth-Jones has been the General Director of the Garsington Opera since 2005. He also worked with the Glyndebourne opera during the 1980s....
, Director of Garsington OperaGarsington OperaGarsington Opera is an annual open air summer opera festival founded in 1989 by Leonard Ingrams. For twenty one years it was held in the gardens of Leonard Ingrams' home at Garsington Manor in Oxfordshire. Since 2011 the festival is now held in Wormsley Park, the home of the Getty family near High... - Phyllida BarlowPhyllida BarlowGillian Phyllida Barlow is a British sculptor and art academic. She was Professor of Fine Art and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Slade School of Art.- Personal background :...
(b.1944), sculptor and Professor of Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine ArtSlade School of Fine ArtThe Slade School of Fine Art is a world-renownedart school in London, United Kingdom, and a department of University College London...
in London, who married Fabian Peake, son of the artist Mervyn PeakeMervyn PeakeMervyn Laurence Peake was an English writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R...
.
Barlow was senior lecturer and honorary consultant in psychological medicine at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School (1951–66), vice chairman of the Mental Health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
Research Fund, and a member of the scientific staff of the MRC
Medical Research Council (UK)
The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
Department of Clinical Research, University College Hospital
University College Hospital
University College Hospital is a teaching hospital located in London, United Kingdom. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is closely associated with University College London ....
. He was chairman of the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering and an enthusiastic founding member of the Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down George III's invitation to be a physician to the King. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave trade abolitionist,inventor and poet...
Foundation at Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
. He was also, at various times, chairman of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company
Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company
Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company was a company founded in 1881 by Horace Darwin and Albert George Dew-Smith to manufacture scientific instruments....
(CIC) - the firm founded by his maternal grandfather
Horace Darwin
Sir Horace Darwin, KBE, FRS , a son of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, was a civil engineer.Darwin was born in Down House in 1851, the fifth son and ninth child of the British naturalist Charles Darwin and his wife Emma, the youngest of their seven children that survived to adulthood.He was...
, and a director of CIC Investment Holdings, deputy chairman of George Kent Ltd and a director of Group Investors Ltd.
Barlow published research papers in physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
and psychiatric medicine
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
. Additionally, he was a Founder Fellow of the Zoological Society of London
Zoological Society of London
The Zoological Society of London is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats...
and its Secretary between 1980 and 1982. In 2008 the society started the Erasmus Darwin Barlow Conservation Expeditions named in his honour.
Barlow was also a trustee for over 20 years of the Barlow Collection of Oriental art collected by his father. In 1997 Barlow, along with his brother Sir Thomas Barlow, 3rd Baronet were both awarded honorary Doctors of Letters degrees by the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
, who were bequeathed the Barlow Collection in 1968 on the death of Sir Alan
Barlow died in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
from renal failure
Renal failure
Renal failure or kidney failure describes a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood...
in 2005.
Selected publications
- BARLOW ED, POCHIN EE. Slow recovery from ischaemia in human nerves. Clin Sci (Lond). 1948 Feb 16;6(4):303-17
- BARLOW ED, HOWARTH S Effects on blood pressure of ventricular asystole during Stokes-Adams attacks and acetylcholine injections. Br Med J. 1953 Oct 17;2(4841):863-4
- SHARPEY-SCHAFER EP, HAYTER CJ, BARLOW ED Mechanism of acute hypotension from fear or nausea. Br Med J. 1958 Oct 11;2(5101):878-80
- BARLOW ED, DE WARDENER HEHugh de WardenerHugh Edward de Wardener CBE MBE FRCP is a British medical doctor. He was Professor of Medicine, University of London, Charing Cross Hospital, 1960–81, and subsequently Emeritus professor. He was Honorary Consultant Physician to the Army, 1975 1980.- References :* ‘de WARDENER, Prof...
, Compulsive water drinking. Q J Med. 1959 Apr;28(110):235-58