Jean Alys Barker, Baroness Trumpington, DCVO, PC (born 23 October 1922) is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.[1]

Early life

Born Jean Alys Campbell-Harris to Major Arthur Campbell-Harris and his American wife Doris Robson. Her father was a Bengal Lancer who became aide-de-camp to the Viceroy of India and knew Lloyd George, while her mother had lost monies in the 1929 crash, and on the families return to their home in Sandwich, Kent specialised in interior decorating.[1]

Educated privately, she left school aged 15 having never taken an exam.[1] She was then sent to Paris, France to study art and literature.[1]

Career

Initially during World War II she was a member of the Women's Land Army attached to Lloyd George's Sussex arable farm, lodging with his then mistress/later wife Miss Stevenson.[1] She then worked in naval intelligence at Bletchley Park, making use of her knowledge of the German language.[1][2][3]

After the end of hostilities in Europe, she moved to New York to work for an advertising agency, where she met William Alan Barker.[1] As he was scheduled to become headmaster of The Leys School, Cambridge, the couple returned to the UK and married in 1954. The couple had one son, Alan, who qualified as a lawyer.[1] She was widowed in 1988.[1]

Politics

Elected as a city councillor for Trumpington on Cambridge City Council, after ten years she became the Mayor of Cambridge 1971 to 1972.[1][4] She tried to become an MP, but was rejected having reached the short list for the Isle of Ely in the 1970s. She served on various public bodies, including as chair of the Airline Users Committee 1979-80.[1]

Barker was made a life peer as Baroness Trumpington, of Sandwich in the County of Kent, in 1980.[1] She was a Baroness-in-waiting from 1983 to 1985, and again from 1992 to 1997. She was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health and Social Security from 1985 to 1988, during which she was an active smoker. She was Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1989 to 1992, which, at age 69, made her the oldest female minister ever.[1][4]

Barker apparently gave a V-sign to Lord King of Bridgwater in the House of Lords on 10 November 2011 when he referred to her advanced age during a Remembrance Day debate.[1][5]

Media

As a guest on Desert Island Discs in 1990, she chose as her luxury item the Crown Jewels, in order to maximise her chances of being rescued.[6]

In November 2012, she was a panellist on the BBC satirical news quiz, Have I Got News for You, at 90 the oldest-ever guest on the show.

Awards

A Justice of the Peace from 1972-75, she was made a Officier de l'Ordre Nationale du Mérite.[4] She was made a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 2005.[1]

Personal life

Widowed, she lives between her apartment in Battersea, and the family home in Sandwich, Kent.[1]

She enjoys Contract bridge, needlepoint and horse racing,[4] and is a former steward of Folkestone Racecourse.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Elizabeth Grice (14 August 2012). "Baroness Trumpington: 'At my age I don't give a damn what I say'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  2. ^ McKay, Sinclair (2010). The Secret Life of Bletchley Park. Aurum. pp. 60, 125–6. ISBN 978-1-84513-539-3.
  3. ^ Bletchley Park Code Breakers - Baroness Trumpington on Youtube, accessed on 14 August 2009
  4. ^ a b c d "The Rt Hon the Baroness Trumpington, DCVO, PC". Debrett's. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  5. ^ House of Lords' V-sign makes X-rated viewing The Guardian, 2011-11-14.
  6. ^ "Desert island Discs".

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