Erasmus Darwin Barlow

Who was Erasmus Darwin Barlow?

Erasmus Darwin Barlow, FRCPsych, FZS 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, daughter of the author Ladbroke Black in 1938. They had three children:

⁕Jeremy Barlow, flautist and Director of the Broadside Band, married Jane Marian Hollowood

⁕Camilla Barlow, married Martin Christopher Mitcheson OBE, doctor, and later Anthony Whitworth-Jones, Director of Garsington Opera

⁕Phyllida Barlow, sculptor and Professor of Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, who married Fabian Peake, son of the artist Mervyn Peake.