Dame Mary Elaine Kellett-Bowman, DBE (née Kay; 8 July 1923 – 4 March 2014)^[1] was a British Conservative Party politician, serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Lancaster for 27 years from 1970 to 1997.

Life and career

Born Mary Elaine Kay to Walter and Edith (née Leather) Kay, she was educated at The Mount School, York, St Anne's College, Oxford, and Barnett House, Oxford, and became a barrister, called to the bar by Middle Temple in 1964. She served as a councillor on Denbigh Borough Council, 1952–55, and the London Borough of Camden, 1968–74. She was also a governor of Culford School in Suffolk from 1963 to 2003.

As Mary Kellett, she contested Nelson and Colne in 1955, South West Norfolk twice in 1959 (including a by-election), and Buckingham in 1964 and 1966. She was MP for Lancaster from 1970 until her retirement in 1997. She also served as a Member of the European Parliament in the British delegation from 1975, and was then elected for Cumbria in 1979. She remained an MEP until 1984, when she stepped down in order to concentrate on her seat in the British Parliament.^[1]

Capital Gay arson attack

In 1987, the London paper Capital Gay's offices were targeted in an arson attack. Tony Banks MP said in the House of Commons, "On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I heard the honorable Member for Lancaster [Kellett-Bowman] say that it was quite right that Capital Gay should have been fire—", at which point he was interrupted by a point of order.^[2] Kellett-Bowman responded, "I am quite prepared to affirm that it is quite right that there should be an intolerance of evil."^[2][3]

Personal life

She had four children with her first husband, Charles Norman Kellett, but was widowed in December 1959; her husband died in a car accident in which she suffered head injuries and memory loss.^[1]

She married Edward Bowman in June 1971; the couple served alongside each other on Camden Borough Council (as Aldermen) and as Members of the European Parliament; both took the shared surname of 'Kellett-Bowman'.^{[citation needed]}