Coral Atkins

Coral Rosemary Atkins (13 September 1936 – 2 December 2016) was an English actress, who opened and ran a home for disadvantaged children. She also starred as Ruth Jameson in Emmerdale. Her best-known role was that of Sheila Ashton in the 1970s drama series A Family at War. That same year, Atkins bought and renovated a thatched cottage called "Crossways" and sought funding to run it as a home. In 1971 she started taking in disturbed and needy children, all under the age of 10 and some as young as 18 months. She had no training or education in related fields, so she educated herself through reading books by psychiatrist R. D. Laing and studying child psychology and psychotherapy. She also lobbied for funding and other support to run the home, such as a promotion run by a pharmacy to seek donations. Some of the children had experienced severe abuse, and attacked the house by setting parts of it on fire, or graffiti-ing the walls. In 2000, ITV dramatised the story in a TV drama of the same name, starring Sarah Lancashire as Atkins. In 1997, she was severely injured in a car crash and had to give up running the children's home. Atkins died in West Berkshire Community Hospital, Thatcham, West Berkshire on 2 December 2016, after a short battle with cancer.