Ruth Homan (8 August 1850 – 6 November 1938)[1] was an educationist and women's welfare campaigner, who worked for many years on the London School Board.

[2] Ruth Homan was born in Hoxton, London to Sir Sydney Waterlow, a philanthropist and politician, and Anna Maria (née Hickson).

[8] The West London Ethical Society, part of the early Ethical movement in the UK, appealed:To those who have no longer a place in established religious organisations, but who yet consider that there is as good need as ever for the exposition and inculcation of the meaning and worth of the moral and inward life... to provide a centre where those who share that conviction may regularly meet, listen to, and exchange thoughts on the themes that concern human wellbeing in the widest and highest sense, unhampered by tradition and conventions that have spent their force.

[6]After the death of her husband Ruth Homan moved to Tintagel where she built a large house called Fairseat after her childhood home in London.

[9] Towards the end of her life, Ruth Homan lived in Cornwall, where she was president of the Tintagel Nursing Association and her local branch of the Women's Institute.