Issued: 16th August 2000

 

Dr Lancelot Lionel Ware, O.B.E.

 

It is with great sadness that we announce the death on Tuesday 15th August of the founder of Mensa, Dr Lancelot Lionel Ware. He was 85.

Dr Ware had entered a Surrey nursing home for long term care just 36 hours earlier, and despite his increasing frailness, his death was unexpected.

Dr Ware was an Oxford scholar, scientist and distinguished barrister and his claim that he had the original idea for the high IQ society, which now has over 100,000 members world-wide, was finally recognised when he was given the title Fons et Origo in 1987. He leaves a widow, Francesca Quint, who is herself a respected barrister.

Born in Mitcham, Surrey on 5th June 1915, Dr Ware's life reflected the intellectual versatility one would expect of the founder of Mensa. He was a Royal Scholar at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, a medical researcher and lecturer at St. Thomas Hospital, London and read Law at Oxford. It was there that Mensa was born on October 1, 1946. Ware was called to the Bar in 1949 by Lincoln's Inn and he practised in the Chancery Field, specialising in intellectual property, copyright and patent matters. He retired in 1985 at the age of 70.

The last honour Dr Lancelot L Ware received was in 1999, when he was made President of the Mensa Foundation for Gifted Children, a body which combined two of his great interests - education and charities. He continued to travel the world on Mensa related trips until well into his eighties, attending the society's 50th anniversary celebrations in both the USA and UK in 1996.

The cremation will take place next Wednesday 23rd August at Guildford Crematorium, at 3.30pm. No flowers by request and donations should be made to an animal or environmental charity of choice. A Memorial ceremony is to be arranged at Lincoln's Inn in the near future.

 

(c) British Mensa Ltd, 2000