Barbara Brooke, Baroness Brooke of Ystradfaltet

Barbara Muriel Brooke, Baroness Brooke of Ystrafelte (birth name: Barbara Muriel Mathews ; born January 14, 1908 in Swansea , Wales ; † September 1, 2000 ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who was named Life Peeress in 1964 under the Life Peerages Act 1958 Became a member of the House of Lords .

Life

Barbara Mathews, daughter of an Anglican clergyman , trained at the Training College for Domestic Science in Gloucester after attending Queen Anne's School in Caversham . On April 22, 1933, she married Henry Brooke , who later became a member of the House of Commons , was several times a minister and most recently as Baron Brooke of Cumnor , of Cumnor in the Royal County of Berkshire, was also a member of the House of Lords. This marriage gave birth to four children, including the eldest son Peter Brooke , who, like his father, was a member of the House of Commons and Minister and who, as Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville , became a member of the House of Lords like his parents. The younger son Henry Brooke later became a judge of the civil chamber ( Queen's Bench Division ) of the High Court of Justice responsible for England and Wales and last worked as Lord Justice of Appeal at the Court of Appeal, also responsible for England and Wales .

Brooke's own political career began in 1948 when she was first elected to the Council of the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead for the Conservative Tories , of which she was a member until 1964. During this time, she also served as vice chairwoman of the Conservative Party between 1954 and 1964. In 1960 she became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services , so that from then on she carried the suffix "Dame". She was also a member of the board of directors of the North West Metropolitan Hospital between 1961 and 1971.

By a letters patent dated December 7, 1964, Barbara Brooke was raised to the nobility as a life peeress with the title Baroness Brooke of Ystradfelte , of Ystradfelte in the County of Breconshire, and was thus a member of the House of Lords until her death. After her husband, after leaving the House of Commons on July 20, 1966, became a member of the House of Lords as Baron Brooke of Cumnor , the two became the first couple to be represented together in a British Parliament .

In 1968 Baroness Brooke was both an honorary member (Honorary Fellow ) of Queen Mary College and of the Westfield College of the University of London, which is now part of it .

Web links

• Barbara Brooke at Hansard (English)
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• The Hon. Sir Henry Brooke, on thepeerage.com , accessed September 11, 2016.
• Entry in the Center for Advancement of Women in Politics