Katharine Elliot, Baroness Elliot of Harwood

Katharine Elliot, Baroness Elliot of Harwood , DBE (born January 15, 1903 , † January 3, 1994 in Hawick , Roxburghshire , Scotland ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party . Since 1958 she was a Life Peeress member of the House of Lords .

Life

Family and education

Katharine Elliot, nee Tennant, was born into a noble family of industrialists in Glasgow . Her grandfather Charles Tennant , a Scottish chemist and industrialist, had invented a bleaching powder for which he applied for a patent in 1799 . Her father was the Scottish industrialist and politician Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet (1823-1906). He was the owner of St Rollox Chemical Works , the largest chemical plant in Glasgow; the factory building was crowned by the famous tallest chimney, the Tennant Stalk , a landmark of the city of Glasgow. Katherine Elliot was from her father's second marriage to Marguerite Agaranthe Miles (1869-1943), the daughter of Colonel Charles William Miles (MP). Her father was 79 years old at the time of her birth. Her half-sister (from her father's first marriage) was Margot Asquith (Emma Alice Margaret Tennant), the wife of long-time British Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith .

Elliot grew up at the Tennants 'home on West George Street in Glasgow and on The Glen , the Tennants' family estate, near Innerleithen in Peeblesshire . She initially received private tuition from various French governesses . As a child, she played in the nursery at No. Downing Street. 10 , where her half-sister Margot Asquith lived. She then attended Abbots Hill School in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire . At the end of her training, she was sent to a girls' boarding school and educational institute for young girls ( Finishing Establishment ) in Paris . In 1921 it was introduced to the court and introduced to King George V and his wife Queen Mary .

Less interested in social life than in politics, she enrolled at the London School of Economics in 1921 . There she attended lectures in political theory with William Beveridge and Harold Laski . Elliot later declared: "I was more interested in politics than parties and grew up with strong Liberal ideals." Elliot came into contact with a circle of young, rising politicians, from whom she essentially learned her political upbringing and shaping. She regularly invited her to dinner parties at her house on Lord North Street , No. 17 in Westminster . This circle included Harold Macmillan , the future British Prime Minister, Oliver Stanley , Robert Boothby , Frank Donaldson , Noel Skelton and Walter Elliot , her future husband.

Political career

In 1929, Elliot was asked to run for the Liberal Party as a candidate for the House of Commons . However, she declined because her Conservative Party competitor was one of her personal friends. Elliot remained true to her original, liberal political views throughout her life. For them, personal contacts and friendships were given priority over party-political calculations; she always cultivated political friendships across party lines.

Elliot then, under the influence of her husband, politically approached the Conservative Party. She wrote speeches for her husband Walter Elliott, the then British Agriculture Minister (1932-1936), and worked for him as an election campaign assistant. She also supported his political commitment to the installation of a state milk authority ("Milk Marketing Board"). She advocated reform of the penal system and opposed the death penalty .

From 1939 to 1949 Elliot was Chair of the National Association of Mixed Clubs and Girls' Clubs (later known as Youth Clubs UK). With her activity, she drew the attention of Herbert Stanley Morrison . He proposed her as a member of the All-Party Committee on the Effects of Prisons during his tenure as Minister of the Interior under the government of Clement Attlee . She was from 1946 to 1962 on the Advisory Committee of the Home Office for the Treatment of Prisoners ( Advisory Committee on the Treatment of Offenders ); During her tenure, she visited virtually every major prison in Britain. She was from 1956 to 1965 a member of the Advisory Committee on Child Care in Scotland . She was also chair of the Conservative Women's National Committee from 1954 to 1957 and chair of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations (1956-1967). In 1963 she became the first chair of the Consumer Council . She held this office until 1968.

In 1954, 1956 and 1957 she was a member of the British delegation to the United Nations . In the fall of 1956 she addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations . In her speech she condemned the invasion of the Soviet Union in the Hungarian uprising . In the absence of ministers due to the Suez crisis , which was at its height, Elliot was chosen as the speaker.

After the death of her husband Walter Elliot († 1958), Elliot was urged to run as a candidate in the constituency of Glasgow Kelvingrove, the constituency of her late husband Walter Elliot, as a candidate for the Conservative Party; however, she narrowly lost to Labor candidate Mary McAlister .

Elliot was also involved in local politics during her political career . She was a member of Roxburghshire County Council (1946-1975). Between 1967 (according to other sources: 1968) and 1994, Elliot was Justice of the Peace for Roxburghshire.

Membership in the House of Lords

On September 26, 1958, she was named a Life Peer under Prime Minister Harold Macmillan . She was named Baroness Elliot of Harwood , of Rulewater in the County of Roxburghshire. In the House of Lords she sat for the Conservative Party. Elliot was one of four women named Life Peer in 1958 under the Life Peerages Act 1958 . In her inaugural address, Elliot was the first woman to speak in the House of Lords for more than 700 years, with the exception of the Queen. Elliot was, along with Margaret Thatcher , who had made the request in the House of Commons, the first woman to get a "Private Bill" through in the House of Lords.

Elliot regularly attended meetings of the House of Lords until shortly before her death. After a hip fracture, she continued to come to meetings by taxi.

Awards and honors

Elliot was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1946. In 1958 he was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

In 1959 she received the honorary degree (Hon LLD) and Doctor of Law ( Doctor of Law ) of the University of Glasgow . In 1963 she was awarded the Great Silver Medal of Honor with the Star for Services to the Republic of Austria .

Private

On April 2, 1934, Katharine Elliot, née Tennant, married the politician Walter Elliott and took up residence in Harwood, Roxburghshire. Walter Elliot was a member of the House of Commons for the Conservative Party and then Minister of Agriculture. He was the son of a farm animal auctioneer . Katherine Elliot became an agriculture , livestock, and farm equipment specialist . She ran her property herself with passion. For her wedding she did not want crockery , silverware or china as usual ; instead, she asked for a tractor .

Walter Elliot died of a heart attack in 1958 . After his death, she took over as Chief Executive Officer ( Chair ) at the auction house of her husband, the company Lawrie & Symington Limited, the Lanark auctioneers . She held this office until 1985.

At the solemn opening of Parliament in November 1993, Elliot fell over her parliamentary robe while leaving the House of Lords. She was hospitalized and died at Hawick Cottage Hospital in Harwood, near her home. She was buried on January 8, 1994 in the parish church of Hobkirk . On April 14, 1994, a memorial service was held for her at St Margaret's Church in Westminster, London.

Elliot played the violin and organ . She was a passionate rider and played golf . She was fluent in French .

Web links

• Katharine Elliot at Hansard (English)
• Katharine Elliot, Baroness Elliot of Harwood (1903-1994) - Biography of the House of Lords (with photo)
• Obituary: Baroness Elliot of Harwood (CORRECTED) - Obituary in The Independent, January 5, 1994
• Baroness Elliot of Harwood - Obituary in The Herald Scotland January 5, 1994

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Baroness Elliot of Harwood obituary in: The Herald Scotland, January 5, 1994
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Katharine Tennant, Baroness Elliot of Harwood on thepeerage.com , accessed September 11, 2016.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Obituary: Baroness Elliot of Harwood (CORRECTED) Obituary in: The Independent of January 5, 1994
4. ^ The Scotsman , Nov. 18, 1989
5. ^ Past CWO Chairmen Official website of the Conservative Women's Organization; accessed on March 31, 2013
6. ↑ Katherine, Baroness Elliot of Harwood Biography (Official website of the Center for Advancement of Women in Politics)
7. ↑ London Gazette ; Issued September 26, 1958
8. ↑ London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Edition dated June 12, 1958  
9. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF file; 6.6 MB)