Margaret Torrie

(Ellen) Margaret Torrie born Ellen Margaret Dighton (17 March 1912 – 8 September 1999) was a British social worker and charity founder. She founded a charity, now called Cruse Bereavement Care, to support bereaved people in the UK.

Life Torrie was born in Wimbledon. Her mother, Marie (born Delger) was Swiss and her father Ernest John Cornfield Dighton was a civil servant. When she had left school she became a pacifist which led her to join the Peace Pledge Union. She worked for the Charity Organization Society. and in 1943 she became the second wife of Alfred Malcolm Torrie who was a psychiatrist and a widower. Initially the priority was not psychological support but more practical problems like tax, pensions, training for a new job, insurance, diet and health. Her volunteers needed to deliver more than kindness but she wanted then to have a spiritual basis for their work. Religious advice was not included however and in time Cruse became a secular charity.

By 1987 Torrie was noting that the support work supplied by Cruse was moving away from practical and spiritual support into a main influence on psychological support.

Death and legacy Torrie exhibited her art work and wrote poetry in her retirement. She died in Hindhead in 1999.