David Donnison

David Vernon Donnison (19 January 1926 – 28 April 2018) was a British academic and social scientist, who was Professor of Social Administration at the London School of Economics from 1961 to 1969, and Professor of Town and Regional Planning (1980–91) and Honorary Research Fellow (from 1991) at the University of Glasgow.

Career Early life and education David Vernon Donnison was born on 19 January 1926 at Yenangyaung in colonial Burma; his father, Frank Siegfried Vernon Donnison, CBE, was a colonial administrator then posted at the town with the Indian Civil Service. His mother was Ruth Seruya, nee Singer, MBE, JP, granddaughter of Simeon Singer. David wrote about his early life in colonial Burma in his 2005 book The Last Guardians. He was educated at boarding schools from the age of 8, finally at Marlborough College from 1940 to 1943. He joined the Royal Navy as an officer and served in the North Atlantic and the Pacific oceans during the Second World War, before going up to Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1947. He graduated three years later with a first-class degree in philosophy, politics and economics. According to his obituary in The Guardian, Donnison was "one of a group of outstanding academics who played an important part in shaping social policy during the 1960s and 70s, and, in his case, well beyond. He remained engaged in public debate until the end of his life." In the 1960s, he had controversially advocated that benefits should not be awarded at the discretion of civil servants, and that claimants should have statutory rights. He remained an advocate of marginalised groups for the rest of his life.

Later life In retirement, Donnison continued to write, authoring Policies for a Just Society (1997) and Speaking to Power: Advocacy for Health and Social Care (2009); but he was also a keen windsurfer, painter, draughtsman and poet, and he took up playing in a ceilidh band. He was well-settled in Scotland, and lived in Glasgow for the rest of his life, although he spent long periods of time on Easdale island. He died on 28 April 2018.

Personal life Donnison married Jean Kidger (died 2017), whom he had met at Oxford, in 1951. They separated in 1979 and he married the writer and activist Kay Carmichael (died 2009) in 1987. By his first wife, Donnison had two daughters (Rachel and Polly), two sons (Christopher and Harry) and a foster son (John), and with his second wife a step-daughter (Sheena).