Violet Bonham Carter

Violet Bonham-Carter (November 1915)

Helen Violet Bonham Carter, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury , née Asquith (born April 15, 1887 in Hampstead , London , † February 19, 1969 in London) was a British politician.

Live and act

Youth and early career (1887–1920)

Violet Bonham Carter was born Violet Asquith in 1887. She was the youngest daughter of the liberal politician and later British Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith from his first marriage to Helen Asquith.

After the early death of Helen Asquith, who died of typhus in 1891, Herbert Asquith was married to Margot Tennant , who became Violet's stepmother.

As a result of the political rise of her father, Violet Asquith grew up in 1905 in Downing Street , London , the residence of the most senior cabinet members. The Asquith family lived there at 11 Downing Street from 1905 to 1908 when Asquith was Treasury Secretary in the Campbell-Bannerman Administration , and then at 10 after the formation of the Asquith Administration in the spring of 1908. the prime minister's residence.

Due to Downing Street's dual function as the residence and political place of work of her father as head of government, Violet Asquith came into contact with a large number of important political figures such as Reginald McKenna , David Lloyd George and Lord Crewe at an early age . A special relationship of trust developed with Winston Churchill , whom her father had brought into the cabinet in 1908. Churchill, who was the closest to her of all her father's ministers, remained on friendly terms with Asquith until his death in the 1960s.

Asquith's memories of her childhood on Downing Street in the eventful years before the First World War await with a large number of observations and impressions on the decisive events and people of this time and are therefore considered an important and much-cited historical source.

Political career

During the decline of the Liberal Party in the 1920s, Violet Asquith, who had been married to Bonham Carter since 1915, first appeared politically as the tireless defender of her father, which was charged with. From 1923 to 1925 she was active as president of the Women's Liberal Federation , and from 1939 to 1945 she was president of the Liberal Party . In 1945 she emerged from the general election in the Wells constituency only as third, in 1951 she ran for the seat of the Colne Valley constituency. Her old friend Churchill managed to get the Conservatives to refrain from putting up their own opponent, so that they could win a narrow victory against the Labor candidate. Asquith also emerged as a political speaker and thinker, whereby she was strongly committed to the classical liberalism of her father. In the 1920s and 1930s, with increasing resonance, it warned of the dangers of continental European fascism. She also worked in many anti-fascist groups such as the Focus Group .

Outside the political sphere, Violet Bonham Carter et al. a. from 1941 to 1946 on the board of directors, the so-called Board of Governors , of the BBC and from 1945 to 1969 of the Old Vic Theater . She also supported the political careers of her son-in-law Jo Grimond , her son Mark, and Jeremy Thorpe . She often made statements on contemporary events on television and radio. From the elevation of her father to Earl of Oxford and Asquith in 1925, Violet Bonham Carter carried the courtesy title "Lady". In 1953 she was knighted as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire . In 1964 she was a Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury , of Yarnbury in the County of Wilts themselves for life elevated to the high nobility.

Even in old age she was still active in the House of Lords . She died of a heart attack.

Family and offspring

Violet Bonham Carter's marriage to Sir Maurice Bonham Carter ("Bongie"), her father's private secretary, had four children: Helen Bonham Carter, Mark Bonham Carter, Raymond Bonham Carter and Laura Bonham Carter. Her sons-in-law included the liberal politician Jo Grimond, the husband of her daughter Laura.

Her grandchildren include actress Helena Bonham Carter and politician Jane Bonham Carter, Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury .

Fonts

• Winston Churchill as I Knew Him , Eyre and Spottiswoode 1965.
• Lantern Slides - The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1904–1914 , Eds. Mark Bonham Carter and Mark Pottle, Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1996.
• Champion Redoubtable - The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1914-1945 , Ed. Mark Pottle, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1998.
• Daring to Hope - The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1945–1969 , Ed. Mark Pottle, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2000.

literature

• Mark Pottle: Carter, (Helen) Violet Bonham, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury (1887–1969), politician . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press 2007.

Web links

Commons : Violet Bonham Carter  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Lady Helen Violet Asquith, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury on thepeerage.com
• Newspaper article about Violet Bonham Carter in the press kit 20th Century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ The London Gazette : No. 39863, p. 2953 , May 26, 1953.