Barbara Brooke, Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte
{{Short description|British politician (1908-2000)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
|name = The Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte
|honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DBE|sep=,|size=100%}}
|image = Baronessbrooke.jpg
| office = Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
| term_start = 7 December 1964
| term_end = 1 September 2000
Life Peerage
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1908|01|14|df=y}}
|death_date = {{Death date and age|2000|09|01|1908|01|14|df=y}}
|party = Conservative Party
|spouse = {{Marriage|Henry Brooke|1933|1984|end=died}}
|alma_mater = Queen Anne's School
}}
Barbara Muriel Brooke, Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DBE|sep=,|size=100%}} (née Mathews; 14 January 1908 – 1 September 2000) was a British Conservative Party politician.
Personal life
Baroness Brooke 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 Brooke (1934–2023), later The Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville, a Conservative politician.
- Sir Henry Brooke (1936–2018), a judge and Lord Justice of Appeal.
- Honor Leslie Brooke (born 1941), married Thomas Nigel Miller.
- Margaret Hilary Diana Brooke (born 1944), married James Pulfer.
Career
After having started a family, Brooke entered politics in 1948, when she became a member of Hampstead Council,{{cite news |work=The Guardian|title=Obituaries - Baroness Brooke |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/sep/12/guardianobituaries |date=12 September 2000 |accessdate=29 October 2016}}{{cite news |work=The Daily Telegraph|title=Obituaries - Lady Brooke of Ystradfellte |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1354108/Lady-Brooke-of-Ystradfellte.html |date=5 September 2000 |accessdate=29 October 2016}} a seat she held until 1965; she also was a Joint Vice-chairman of the Conservative Party from 1954 to 1964. 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 to 1966, chair of The Queen's Institute of District Nursing from 1961 to 1971 and the North London Hospital Management Committee from 1963 to 1966.
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".{{London Gazette |issue=41909 |date=29 December 1959 |page=10 |supp=y}} In 1964, she was raised to the peerage as Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte, of Ystradfellte in the County of Brecknock{{London Gazette |issue=43511 |date=8 December 1964 |page=10447}} and two years later her husband was created Baron Brooke of Cumnor.{{London Gazette |issue=44059 |date=21 July 1966 |page=8227}}
References
{{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooke of Ystradfellte, Barbara Brooke, Baroness}}
Category:Councillors in Greater London
Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers
Category:People from Hampstead
Category:People from Brecknockshire
Category:People educated at Queen Anne's School
Category:Spouses of life peers
Category:20th-century British women politicians
Category:Women councillors in England
Category:Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II
Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II
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