Ruth Padel

Ruth Padel, poet and travel writer, and a double descendant of Josiah Wedgwood I, Chair of the UK Poetry Society 2004-2007 and currently Resident Poet at Christ's College Cambridge has been elected to the Post of Professor of Poetry at Oxford University. Ruth is the first women to hold the 300-year-old poetry post. The appointment is for a term of five years, and chosen through an election open to all "members of Convocation." Her most recent book is Darwin: a life in poems [2009] a publication which marks the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, her great-great grandfather.

Simplified descent:

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) + Sarah Wedgwood (3^rd cousin) =

Susannah Wedgwood + Robert Darwin =

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) + Emma Wedgwood (1^st cousin) =

Sir Horace Darwin (1851-1928) + Hon. Emma Cecilia "Ida" Farrer (1854–1946) =

Emma Nora Darwin (1885-1989) + Sir James Alan Noel Barlow

Hilda Horatia Barlow (b.1919) + John Hunter Padel =

Ruth Sophia Padel (b.1946)

Links:

Ruth Padel – Personal website.

Update:

[26^th May] Ruth Padel has resigned the post to allow a re-election free of controversy. BBC: "Oxford Poet 'Sorry' over Vote Row."