Margaret Heather Laird

{{Moresources|section|date=March 2023}}

Margaret Heather Polmear was born on 29 January 1933 in Truro, Cornwall.{{cite news |title=Obituary: MARGARET HEATHER LAIRD |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2014/23-may/gazette/obituaries/obituary-margaret-heather-laird |access-date=20 July 2022 |work=Church Times |date=23 May 2014}} As a child, her father attended the Anglo-Catholic Church of St Paul, Truro and her mother attended the local Methodist chapel.{{cite journal |title=Margaret Laird |journal=New Directions |date=June 2014 |issue=229 |url=http://ndarchive.forwardinfaith.com/2017/10/10/margaret-laird/ |access-date=20 July 2022 |publisher=Forward in Faith}} Having attended both church and chapel, she was confirmed in the Church of England.

She was educated at Truro High School, an all-girls private school in Truro, where she became head girl.{{cite news |title=Margaret Laird |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/margaret-laird-hxk3hlzx7h9 |access-date=20 July 2022 |work=The Times |date=2 September 2014 |language=en}} She studied medieval history at Westfield College, London, then an all-girls college of the University of London, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1954. She undertook further studies at King's College London, completing a postgraduate certificate in religious knowledge in 1955.{{cite web |title=Laird, Margaret Heather, (29 January 1933 – 11 May 2014), Third Church Estates Commissioner, 1989–99 |url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U23624 |website=Who Was Who |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=20 July 2022 |language=en |date=1 December 2016}}

Laird's first career was in teaching. She was divinity mistress at the Grey Coat Hospital, an all-girls state school in London, from 1955 to 1959. She then taught at Newquay Grammar School, a co-education state grammar school in Newquay (1959 to 1960), and at St Albans High School, an all-girls private school in St Albans (1960 to 1962). Having married in 1961, she took a break from teaching to "concentrated on motherhood". She returned to her career, and her final teaching position was as head of religious studies at Dame Alice Harpur School, an all-girls independent school in Bedford, between 1969 and 1989.

In 1980, Laird was elected to the General Synod of the Church of England as a representative from the Diocese of St Albans. She continued to sit as a lay member from that diocese until she became an ex-officio member as a church commissioner from 1990. In September 1988, she was selected by Robert Runcie, the then Archbishop of the Church of England, to be the next Third Church Estates Commissioner. The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England, and the Third Commissioner is chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury. She served as Third Church Estates Commissioner for a decade, between 1989 and 1999. As Commissioner, she was a member of the Standing Committee of the General Synod and of the Church of England's Pension Board during her time in office.

In the 1999 New Year Honours, Laird was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services as a Church Commissioner.{{London Gazette |issue= 55354 |date= 31 December 1998 |pages= 9-11 |supp= y }}

Active in traditionalist Anglo-Catholic circles, she was a vocal opposer of the ordination of women. From 1993, she was the first female governor of Pusey House, Oxford; she was its vice-president from 2014. She also served as vice-president of the Society for the Maintenance of the Faith from 1994 until her death, and was a trustee of the Oxford Movement Anniversary Appeal Trust between 1996 and 2010. Through her husband, she also had links with Forward in Faith.

While studying at King's College, London, she met her future husband, John Laird. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1959,{{Crockford| surname = Laird | forenames = John Charles | id = 41232 | accessed = 20 July 2022}} and they married in 1961. After parish ministry, her husband became chaplain and then principal of Bishops' College, Cheshunt, an Anglican theological college. After the closure of Bishops' College, he became a vicar and then one of the only domestic chaplains to a private family, as chaplain to the Marquess of Salisbury.{{cite news |last1=Shamash |first1=Jack |title=The last full time family chaplain robes up for the lord's prayer time |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/religion/article/the-last-full-time-family-chaplain-robes-up-for-the-lords-prayer-time-mfcs7zpv0g7 |access-date=20 July 2022 |work=The Times |date=28 June 2014 |language=en}} Together, they had two sons: Stephen is an Anglican priest and chaplain,{{cite web |title=Stephen Laird |url=https://staugustinescollege.ac.uk/staff/stephen-laird/ |website=St Augustine's College of Theology |access-date=20 July 2022}} while Andrew is a classical scholar.{{cite web |title=Andrew Laird: John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics and Humanities and Professor of Hispanic Studies |url=https://vivo.brown.edu/display/alaird |website=|publisher=Brown University |access-date=20 July 2022 |language=en |date=2017}}

Laird's beliefs fell within the Prayer Book Catholic tradition of the Church of England.

Laird died on 11 May 2014, aged 81, following a terminal illness of two years. She was survived by her husband and sons.

{{reflist}}

{{s-start}}

{{S-rel}}

{{s-bef|before= The Revd Deacon
Betsy Howarth}}

{{s-ttl|title= Third Church Estates Commissioner |years= 1989 to 1999}}

{{s-aft|after= Gillian Joynson-Hicks}}

{{s-end}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laird, Margaret Heather}}

Category:1933 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:British schoolteachers

Category:Church Estates Commissioners

Category:Members of the General Synod of the Church of England

Category:People from Truro

Category:People educated at Truro High School

Category:Alumni of Westfield College

Category:Alumni of King's College London

Category:British Anglo-Catholics

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire