British politician
Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Bottomley, Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone
,
PC
DL
(
nee
Garnett
, born 12 March 1948) is a British
Conservative Party
politician and
headhunter
. She was a
Member of Parliament
(MP) in the
House of Commons
from 1984 to 2005. She became a member of the
House of Lords
in 2005.
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Garnett was born in
Dunoon
, Scotland, to Barbara Rutherford-Smith, Jarrow hunger marcher, a teacher and elected Conservative member of the
Inner London Education Authority
and
W. John Garnett
CBE, former director of what was then called
The Industrial Society
, grandson of Cambridge physicist and educational adviser
William Garnett
and of Sir Edward Poulton, Hope professor of zoology at Oxford.
[3]
[4]
Her paternal aunt was
Labour
Greater London Council
member
Peggy Jay
. She first met
Peter Bottomley
, her future husband, when she was 12 years old; they wed in 1967.
Bottomley was privately educated at
Putney High School
, in southwest London, before studying sociology at the
University of Essex
, graduating with a BA degree. She later graduated from the
London School of Economics
with the degree of
Master of Arts
(MA).
She began her working life as a social scientist and was a researcher for the
Child Poverty Action Group
.
[5]
She has also been a
social worker
,
magistrate
(
Justice of the Peace
), and Chairman of the Inner London Juvenile Court.
[6]
Member of Parliament and in government
[
edit
]
After unsuccessfully contesting the
Isle of Wight
in the
1983 general election
(34,904 votes), she was elected to
Parliament
with 21,545 votes in a
by-election in 1984
(filling the seat left vacant by the death of
Maurice Macmillan
, son of former prime minister
Harold Macmillan
),
[7]
as the Member for
South West Surrey
, was PPS to
Chris Patten
and then to Foreign Secretary
Sir Geoffrey Howe
, received her first ministerial position in 1988 as a
Parliamentary Under-Secretary
at the
Department of the Environment
[8]
[9]
and was appointed
Minister of State
at the
Department of Health
in 1989.
[9]
She was appointed a member of the
Privy Council
(PC) upon joining
John Major
's Cabinet as
Secretary of State for Health
in 1992,
[10]
[11]
becoming the ninth woman to serve in the British cabinet.
[12]
She served as Health Secretary until 1995.
[13]
Bottomley and
Ann Widdecombe
have been listed as co-founders of Lady Olga Maitland’s pro-nuclear
Women and Families for Defence
group.
[14]
She served as
Secretary of State for National Heritage
from 1995 to 1997.
[11]
[15]
During this period, she appeared in the
Eurovision Song Contest 1996
, wishing luck to the United Kingdom's entrant,
Gina G
, in her postcard.
[16]
After the
1997 general election
, she returned to the
backbenches
, and became a
headhunter
at Odgers, where she headed and now chairs the company's Board & CEO Practice.
[17]
Retirement
[
edit
]
She stepped down from the House of Commons when the
2005 general election
was called.
[7]
On 24 June 2005 she was created a
life peer
with the title
Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone
,
of
St Helens
in the County of
Isle of Wight
,
[11]
[18]
the parish where she was baptised and celebrated her marriage.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Bottomley is involved with charitable and academic bodies in addition to business. She was on the founding Council of the
University of the Arts, London
. She was a Council Member of the
Ditchley Foundation
and was President of
Farnham Castle
, Centre for International Briefing. From 2000 until May 2012 she sat on the Supervisory Board of
Akzo Nobel
, taking over Courtaulds and then ICI. She was a
non-executive director
of
Bupa
, a healthcare company. She was on the Advisory Council of the
International Chamber of Commerce
UK (ICC UK) and the
Judge School of Management
, Cambridge. Bottomley has been a trustee and is a fellow of the Industry and Parliament Trust. She was National President of the
Abbeyfield Society
[19]
and a Vice-Patron of Carers and of
Cruse Bereavement Care
. She was a
lay canon
of
Guildford Cathedral
, and a
Freeman
of the
City of London
.
In 2006, she was elected and installed as Chancellor of the
University of Hull
, succeeding
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster
in April 2006.
[20]
She was also appointed a
Deputy Lieutenant
of
Surrey
on 22 March of that year and
Sheriff of Hull
since 2013.
[21]
[22]
She is the longest serving trustee of The Economist newspaper.
[23]
Virginia Garnett married
Peter Bottomley
in 1967, after the birth of their eldest child;
[24]
[25]
since 1975 he has been an MP.
[26]
During her time in Prime Minister John Major's cabinet, the satirical puppet show
Spitting Image
often portrayed Major as having an unrequited crush on Bottomley; years later, it was revealed that Major was having an affair with
Edwina Currie
at the time.
[27]
Bottomley's family includes many figures in politics and public life. Her brother,
Christopher Garnett
, was the chief executive of
train operating company
GNER
.
[28]
Her aunt Pauline married
Roland Hunt
who is not connected to
Sir Nicholas Hunt
, father of Jeremy Hunt who succeeded her as MP.
[
citation needed
]
Her cousins include
Peter Jay
(the former
British Ambassador to the United States
[29]
and son-in-law to
James Callaghan
), and
Lord Hunt of Chesterton
(father of historian and former Labour MP
Tristram Hunt
).
More distant relatives include
Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay
[29]
and
Baron Jay of Ewelme
(former FCO PUSS and
British Ambassador to France
).
Julia Cleverdon
married Bottomley's late father, John.
[30]
Her husband's niece is
Kitty Ussher
(a former Labour minister).
[31]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Mrs Virginia Bottomley (Hansard)"
.
api.parliament.uk
. Retrieved
1 January
2020
.
- ^
"Virginia Bottomley"
.
Front Row
. 25 April 2013. BBC Radio 4.
Archived
from the original on 7 June 2013
. Retrieved
18 January
2014
.
- ^
"Obituary: John Garnett"
.
The Independent
. 18 September 1997.
Archived
from the original on 27 June 2019
. Retrieved
27 June
2019
.
- ^
"The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography"
.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/33333
.
ISBN
978-0-19-861412-8
. Archived from
the original
on 30 April 2018
. Retrieved
29 April
2018
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- ^
"Poor families 'can expect little help with food bills'
".
The Times
. No. 58331. London. 22 November 1971. p. 3.
- ^
Whitehead, Peter (1 December 2010).
"Interview: A discreet new life away from the spotlight"
.
Financial Times
. Retrieved
16 March
2023
.
- ^
a
b
"Looking back on 21 years as an MP"
. BBC. 27 April 2005.
Archived
from the original on 7 April 2014
. Retrieved
22 February
2010
.
- ^
Geoffrey Parkhouse (26 July 1988).
"Thatcher surprise shake-up for Health"
.
The Glasgow Herald
. p. 1.
Archived
from the original on 5 March 2016
. Retrieved
22 February
2010
.
- ^
a
b
"Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone"
. www.parliament.uk. Archived from
the original
on 18 June 2012
. Retrieved
4 March
2012
.
- ^
William E. Schmidt (12 April 1992).
"In London's Shock, A Cabinet Is Named"
.
New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on 31 May 2013
. Retrieved
22 February
2010
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Bottomley of Nettlestone"
.
Who's Who
. A & C Black.
doi
:
10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U8194
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- ^
Mikhailova, Anna (23 December 2019).
"Sir Peter Bottomley, the new Father of the House: 'Each department I was in, I would say - you have at least one minister too many'
"
.
The Telegraph
. Retrieved
16 March
2023
.
- ^
"Care in the community failures"
.
BBC News
. 20 November 1998.
- ^
Martin, Lorna (19 August 2006).
"The battle of Greenham Common is over. But their spirit still burns"
.
The Guardian
.
- ^
Alberge, Dalya (7 July 1995). "Bottomley keen to join her 'Ministry of the Future'
".
The Times
. No. 65313. London. p. 9.
- ^
Hall, James 21 May 2021.
"Just a Little Bit... crooked: How Gina G's Ooh Aah Eurovision glory was stolen"
.
The Telegraph
. Retrieved
17 March
2023
.
{{
cite news
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
"Virginia Bottomley"
.
Odgers Berndtson
. Retrieved
25 January
2022
.
- ^
"No. 57688"
.
The London Gazette
. 29 June 2005. p. 8439.
- ^
"Abbeyfield Society: Patrons"
. Archived from
the original
on 7 July 2011
. Retrieved
4 September
2009
.
- ^
"Ex-Minister is new Uni Chancellor"
.
BBC News
. 26 January 2006
. Retrieved
16 March
2023
.
- ^
"Deputy Lieutenant Commissions Lieutenancy of Surrey 22 March 2006"
.
The London Gazette
. Retrieved
16 November
2023
.
- ^
BBC
Lord Mandelson picked for High Steward of Hull post
Archived
13 December 2019 at the
Wayback Machine
, 7 February 2013; accessed 21 March 2014.
- ^
"Our Trustees"
. The Economist Group
. Retrieved
16 March
2023
.
- ^
Durham, Michael (12 July 1992).
"Virginia's early summer of love, books and a baby"
.
The Independent
. London, UK.
Archived
from the original on 11 September 2016
. Retrieved
29 October
2017
.
- ^
"Biography at John Major site"
. Archived from
the original
on 30 August 2010
. Retrieved
9 September
2010
.
- ^
"Bottomley, Sir Peter (James)"
.
Who's Who
. A & C Black.
doi
:
10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U8193
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- ^
Billen, Andrew (28 March 2008).
"An entire political era was covered in rubber by Spitting Image"
.
The Times
. No. 69283. London, England. p. 11.
Archived
from the original on 13 September 2018
. Retrieved
13 September
2018
.
- ^
Harper, Keith (21 July 2001).
"Profile: Christopher Garnett"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
16 March
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Moya, Elena (2010).
"Big-name hunter Virginia Bottomley fights to bag more jobs for women"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
15 March
2023
.
- ^
Davidson, Andrew (2007),
"The MT interview: Julia Cleverdon"
Archived
4 March 2012 at the
Wayback Machine
,
Management Today
, 28 September 2007; retrieved 3 January 2011.
- ^
"She fought for the euro; now one of Brown's stars will be the City's champion"
. EMAG/
The Times
. 9 July 2007.
Archived
from the original on 4 October 2011
. Retrieved
18 June
2009
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Secretaries of State for
National Heritage
(1992?1997)
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Secretaries of State for
Culture, Media and Sport
(1997?2010)
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Secretary of State for
Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport
(2010?2012)
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Secretaries of State for
Culture, Media and Sport
(2012?2017)
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Secretaries of State for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
(2017?2023)
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Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport
(2023?present)
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Cabinet Members
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