Virginia Bottomley
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The Right Honourable Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Bottomley (born March 12, 1948), née Garnett, is a British Conservative Party politician. She was a Member of Parliament from 1984 to 2005 and was considered to be a 'One Nation Conservative'.
She studied at the London School of Economics. She was a researcher for Child Poverty Action Group and then became a social worker and a magistrate (Justice of the Peace).
She was elected to Parliament in a by-election in 1984, as the Member for Surrey South West, and received her first ministerial position in 1988, as junior Environment minister, and was appointed Minister of Health in 1989. She become a member of the Privy Council, and joined John Major's cabinet, serving as Secretary of State for Health from 1992 to 1995, and then Secretary of State for National Heritage from 1995 to 1997. After the 1997 general election, she returned to the backbenches also becoming a headhunter for the charity and public sectors. She stepped down from the House of Commons before the 2005 general election
She is also involved with charitable and academic bodies. She is a Governor of the London School of Economics and the University of the Arts, London. She is also a Council Member of the Ditchley Foundation and President of Farnham Castle Centre for International Briefing. She is on the Advisory Council of the International Chamber of Commerce UK and the Judge School of Management, Cambridge. Virginia is a trustee and fellow of the Industry and Parliament Trust. She is National President of the Abbeyfield Society and a Vice-Patron of Carers and Cruse. She is a lay Canon of Guildford Cathedral, and a Freeman of the City of London.
She married Peter Bottomley in 1967; since 1975 he has been an MP. Her brother, Christopher Garnett, is the chief executive of the GNER railway, and Peter Jay, the former British Ambassador to the United States, is a cousin.
On 13 May 2005 it was announced that she would be created a life peer.
| Preceded by: William Waldegrave | Secretary of State for Health 1992–1995 | Succeeded by: Stephen Dorrell |
| Preceded by: Stephen Dorrell | Secretary of State for National Heritage 1995–1997 | Succeeded by: Chris Smith Sec. State Culture, Media and Sport |