Elspeth Howe, Baroness Howe of Idlicote
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Elspeth Howe, Baroness Howe of Aberavon and Baroness Howe of Idlicote (b. February 8, 1932), wife of Sir Geoffrey Howe, now Lord Howe of Aberavon, was born Elspeth Rosamond Morton Shand, daughter of the writer Philip Morton Shand (or P. Morton Shand, or Morton Shand) by his fourth wife Sybil Mary Shand. As such, she is an aunt of the half-blood to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (nče Shand, formely Parker-Bowles), whose father Bruce Middleton Hope Shand was son of P. Morton Shand by a previous marriage.
Elspeth Shand was well-educated for her times, studying at Wycombe Abbey, a leading private school for girls in the United Kingdom. She married the rising politician Geoffrey Howe in 1953, and have one son and two daughters.
She then served as deputy chairman of the Equal Opportunites Commission from 1975 to 1979, and in various other capacities from 1980. She was later made Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Commission. In 2001, at the age of 69, she was made a life peer as Baroness Howe of Idlicote in her own right, becoming one of the first People's Peers. As a result of her husband having received a knighthood and later a peerage, and herself subsequently being made a peer in her own right, she is now three times a lady, going from Mrs Geoffrey Howe to Lady Howe, to Baroness Howe of Aberavon to Baroness Howe of Idlicote.
Sources
- Political profile from Vacher Dod (http://www.politicallinks.co.uk/POLITICS2/BIOG/ld_BIOGS/bio.asp?id=2538)
- Camilla's grandfather and other ancestors (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n02/murp02_.html)
- Immediate ancestry of P. Morton Shand (http://www.peterwestern.f9.co.uk/maximilia/pafg1283.htm)
- The Daily Telegraph article on new peers (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/04/27/npeer127.xml)
- The Guardian article on new peers (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,9061,889088,00.html)