Rachel Pinney (original) (raw)

Rachel Pinney (11 July 1909 – 19 October 1995) was a British medical doctor who pioneered therapeutic approaches to children's development in the 1960s which she termed "Creative Listening" and "Children's Hours". From 1927 to 1934 she was a member of the clandestine Ferguson's Gang, a group of eccentric philanthropists who donated money to the National Trust and other rural conservation appeals. In her alter-ego as Red Biddy, Pinney, cloaked and masked, delivered Ferguson's Gang's first donation to the National Trust offices in 1933. The delivery of £100 in silver for the endowment of Shalford Mill to the National Trust was reported in The Times. Unorthodox in many ways, Pinney kept a vow of silence on Wednesdays, and was a committed peace activist.