46 | Obituaries
Barbara Tizard (Parker, 1944) Barbara Parker was born on 6 April 1926. Of working class background with a largely absent father and a mother heavily involved in teaching, Barbara spent much of her early life in boarding schools and with various substitute parents. She did not like these arrangements and was critical of her boarding school regimes, but never lost her love for her mother. Barbara won a scholarship to St Paul’s School for Girls, London, and remained there through much of the blitz. After a short visit to Oxford, Barbara developed a passionate desire to win a scholarship to Somerville College. This she did, initially to read medicine, but after a year switching to PPE. From her childhood Barbara had a strong commitment to social justice and equality. She became a member of the Communist Party but left in 1956 after the Soviet invasion of Hungary. I also came up to Somerville in 1944 (to read chemistry) and, as contemporaries with similar political affiliations, we became friends. In her third year Barbara fell in love with Jack Tizard, a New Zealander working on a research degree. In 1947 Jack accepted a psychology lectureship at St Andrews, while Barbara remained in Oxford. They missed each other greatly and Barbara persuaded the Principal, Janet Vaughan, to allow them to marry (then frowned upon for undergraduates). Thus began a happy married life until Jack died of cancer in 1979, aged 60. Jack moved to research at the Institute of Psychiatry in the Maudsley Hospital, London, in 1948, and Barbara took a course at University College in the psychology of young children and their development. Meanwhile Barbara and her mother, who had opposed her marriage, to a large extent became reconciled. She had developed cancer and Barbara looked after her until she died in February 1952. After her first baby, Barbara began research at the Maudsley and in 1956,
after two further pregnancies, gained a PhD in the psychological effects of brain damage. She became a part-time clinical psychologist at the London Hospital and in 1960 moved to the Maudsley Hospital Children’s Department. In 1964 Barbara moved to the Thomas Coram Research Institute in the Institute of Education where Jack himself was now established. She made her name as a fearless researcher in child development, following her own findings even when they were at variance with received wisdom. She published six books as sole or co-author on subjects including early education, adoption and the effects of race and mixed race on children’s learning and development. Her interest in mixed race was a personal one. After three children of her own she adopted two more of mixed race. Until Jack died in 1979 Barbara had regarded herself as a backroom researcher although she was by then a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a University Reader, and a well-regarded team leader. After Jack died, she became director of the Thomas Coram Research Unit, remaining so for 10 years, and was promoted to professor. In 1983 Barbara made a number of visits to India, Indonesia and Ethiopia as consultant on early education and childcare for WHO and Save the Children. She was shocked by the extreme poverty and the frequency of depression among women. Barbara was an Amnesty International supporter and a peace activist. In her retirement she also took a diploma in fine art and pursued her love of poetry and theatre. She wrote a fascinating memoir Home is where one starts from. She was a true Somervillian with an enquiring mind, strong opinions and a free spirit. PAULINE HARRISON (Cowan, 1944)