Barbara Brooke, Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte

Dame Barbara Muriel Brooke, Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte, Lady Brooke of Cumnor, DBE (14 January 1908 – 1 September 2000) was a British Conservative politician.

Personal life

Barbara Muriel Mathews was the youngest of five children of a Welsh minister, Rev. Alfred Augustus Mathews and his wife, Ethel Frances. She was educated at Queen Anne's School in Caversham, Berkshire and the Gloucester Training College of Domestic Science.

On 22 April 1933, she married fellow Conservative, Henry Brooke; the couple had four children:

• Peter Leonard (b. 1934), later Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville.
• Henry (b. 1936), later Sir Henry.
• Honor Leslie (b. 1941), married Dr. Thomas Nigel Miller.
• Margaret Hilary Diana (b. 1944), married Dr. James Pulfer.

Career

After having started a family, Brooke entered politics in 1948, when she became a member of Hampstead Council,^[1][2] a seat she held until 1965;^[2] she also was a Joint Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1954-64.^[2] She had also been active in a number of health organisations in her lifetime, including being a member of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board from 1954–66,^[2] chair of The Queen's Institute of District Nursing from 1961–71^[2] and the North London Hospital Management Committee from 1963-66.

Honours

In the 1960 New Year Honours, Brooke was appointed to the Order of the British Empire as a Dame Commander (DBE), for "political and public services".^[3] In 1964, she was raised to the peerage as Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte, of Ystradfellte in the County of Breconshire^[4] and two years later her husband was created Baron Brooke of Cumnor.^[5]

Styles of address

• 1908–1933: Miss Barbara Matthews
• 1933–1960: Mrs Barbara Brooke
• 1960–1964: Dame Barbara Brooke DBE
• 1964–2000: The Rt Hon. The Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte DBE

References