Margaret of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar

Coat of arms of the Countess of Mar

Margaret Alison of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar (born September 19, 1940 ) is a British peeress and politician .

Life

Origin and family

Margaret of Mar was born Margaret Alison Lane to Millicent Mary Salton and James Clifton Lane, later James of Mar, 30th Earl of Mar (1914–1975), the heir presumptive of his cousin Lionel Erskine-Young, 29th Earl of Mar . She attended the Kenya High School for Girls in Nairobi , Kenya and the Lewes County Grammar School for Girls, in Lewes in the county of Sussex .

She has two younger siblings: David of Mar, Master of Mar and Lady Janet of Mar . In 1959, her father took the surname "of Mar" with official permission. His three children were also named "of Mar"; the old name Lane has been abandoned.

title

When her father inherited the title of Earl of Mar in 1965, she received the courtesy title "Lady Margaret of Mar" and her brother the courtesy title "The Master of Mar, Lord Garioch". Her brother died in 1967 and she became "The Mistress of Mar" as her father's older heir. When her father died in 1975, Margaret of Mar inherited his nobility titles as 31st Countess of Mar and 24th Lady Garioch .

Employment and illness

Margaret of Mar worked until 1982 as a Sales Superintendent at British Telecom . However, she mainly works as a farmer . She is a livestock breeder , especially sheep , and is a major producer of specialty cheeses in Worcestershire .

In the summer of 1989 she was while their sheep in one with Organsophosphat - pesticide treated filled disinfection, exposed to a small amount of chemicals in the foot. She got a headache and muscle pain three weeks later. She was eventually diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (also called myalgic encephalomyelitis, ME). She then founded the aid organization Forward-ME with the aim of bundling and channeling the activities of charities and volunteer organizations. She also used her membership in the House of Lords for this purpose. She called on the government to enshrine better medical care for patients with similar diseases in law. In particular, he advocated precise regulation of the use of organophosphates.

Membership in the House of Lords

With the death of her father on April 21, 1975, Margaret of Mar formally became a member of the House of Lords . She is the only Countess with an independent title as Countess (title in her own right; suo jure) in the House of Lords. She is a crossbencher in the House of Lords . On October 28, 1975 she was present for the first time at a meeting. She gave her inaugural address on April 7, 1976. She is one of the 92 elected Hereditary Peers who retained their seat in the House of Lords under the House of Lords Act 1999 .

On the official website of the House of Lords, she lists social security , agriculture , the environment , pesticides and food standards as well as health care as topics of political interest .

She held various functions in the House of Lords. From 1997 to 1999 she belonged to the special committee "Select Committee on European Communities Sub-Committee C" (Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection) and from 2001 to 2005 to the special committee "Select Committee on European Union Sub-Committee D" (Environment, Agriculture , Public Health and Consumer Protection / Environment and Agriculture). From 1997 to 2007 she was Deputy Chair of the Committees of the House of Lords (Deputy Chair of Committees) and Deputy Chair (Deputy Speaker). In 2006 she unsuccessfully took up the position of Lord Speaker . Since 2010 she has been Deputy Chair of Committees again; In 2011 she became Deputy Speaker again.

Currently (as of December 2012) Mar is a member of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. She was a member of the Lords Refreshment Committee and serves on the Presidium of the Deputy Chairmen of Committees. She is also the secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Pesticides and Organophoshates.

Margaret of Mar attends the House of Lords regularly and with an average of very high number of meeting days.

Further offices and honors

Margaret of Mar held numerous other non-political and honorary offices.

She was a lay member ( Lay Member ) of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal (1985-2006). She was chairman ( Chairman ) of Honest Food (2000-2005) and Chair of Environmental Medicine Foundation (1997-2003).

She has been President of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists since 2007 ; She is also a member of the Specialist Cheese Makers Association. She is a member of the ethics committee of Micropathology Ltd, a medical company specializing in nuclear diagnostics . She is also a member of the Academy of Nutritional Medicine Research Ethics Committee.

She was also the patron of several organizations and associations (Dispensing Doctors 'Association 1985–1986; Worcestor Mobile Disabled Group 1991–2003; Gulf Veterans' Association).

She is an honorary member ( Honorary Associate ) of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (since 2006) and the British Veterinary Association (since 2007).

Private

Mar was married three times. In her first marriage she was initially married to Edwin Noel Artiss; the marriage was divorced in 1976. In second marriage she was married to John Salton and finally in third marriage to John Jenkin. From her first marriage she has a daughter, Susan Helen of Mar, Mistress of Mar (* 1963), the alleged heiress (heiress presumptive) of her mother's title. Her hobbies she counts gardening , painting and drawing , interior design and interior design and reading .

Web links

• Margaret of Mar at Hansard (English)
• Countess of Mar - Biography (House of Lords)
• The Countess of Mar - Biography (Debretts)
• The Countess of Mar - Voting Behavior (The Public Whip)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Margaret Alison of Mar, Countess of Mar on thepeerage.com , accessed September 18, 2016.
2. ↑ Christopher Booker: Poisoned by Order: Plight of Our Sheep Farmers . Reader's Digest (UK) 147 (884): 88th (December 1995); Julia Hinde: Sick countess rounds on 'impartial' advisers in: Times Higher Education, July 25, 1997
3. ^ The Countess of Mar — Sat first in Parliament after the death of her father. Minutes of the House of Lords meeting of October 28, 1975
4. ↑ TRAINING FACILITIES FOR INDUSTRY Text of the speech of April 7, 1976
5. ^ Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments: Members List of members; Official website of the House of Lords; Retrieved December 11, 2012

predecessor	Office	successor
James of Mar	Countess of Mar 1975–	current holder of the title