Baroness Masham of Ilton (1935-2023)
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Henry W
colinp
Jonathan
Richard R
Henry W
My Lords, I regret to inform the House of the death of the noble Baroness, Lady Masham of Ilton, on 12 March. I pay tribute to the noble Baroness as a distinguished Paralympian, the longest-serving life Peer and the longest-serving female Member of this House ever. On behalf of the House, I extend our condolences to the noble Baroness’s family and friends.
David Beamish
Jonathan
colinp
Baroness Masham of Ilton, Paralympic medallist and vigorous campaigner for the rights of the disabled – obituary
She won 10 medals in swimming and table tennis and became an activist for a variety of causes including child welfare and drug abuse
Baroness Masham of Ilton, the Dowager Countess of Swinton, who has died aged 87, survived a triple fracture of her spine in a point-to-point accident aged 22 to lead the fullest of lives from her wheelchair.
She became not only a multiple Paralympic medallist and a champion of causes concerning disability, but a campaigner on many other issues after being created a life peeress in 1970; by her death she was the longest-serving female member of the Lords…..
The most infuriating building for her was the European Commission in Brussels, where every lavatory door was too narrow for a wheelchair…..
In 1970 she was created Baroness Masham of Ilton, of Masham in the North Riding of the County of York – at 35, the youngest life peer up to then. She and her husband, who succeeded to the Earldom of Swinton on the death of his grandfather in 1972, became one of the few couples each to hold a title in their own right…..
For many months Lord Masham, as he then was, helped to nurse her back to health, even trying to teach her to walk. Married in December 1959, they lived in a specially adapted single-storey home on the Swinton estate…..
Though they still hoped for children, they adopted a girl and a boy. Her greatest difficulty, she confided, was lifting her six-month-old son before he learnt to sit up…..
Lady Masham was a prominent Roman Catholic convert, and a patron of the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology.
She was born Susan Lilian Primrose Sinclair in Caithness on April 14 1935, the daughter of Sir Ronald Sinclair, 8th Baronet, and the former Reba Inglis. Educated at Heathfield and London Polytechnic, she took up a career in voluntary work…..
Created a life peeress on the recommendation of Harold Wilson, who had challenged her to move her campaigning on to a wider stage, she joined Lord Ingleby (disabled by polio), Lord Crawshaw (riding accident) and Lady Darcy de Knayth (car crash) in helping through the 1970 Chronic Sick and Disabled Persons Act.
They were joined in 1973 by the Duke of Buccleuch, disabled by a riding accident two years before when a member of the Commons. In January 1981 they secured a record wheelchair turn-out for the Lords’ debate on the International Year of the Disabled…..
Lady Masham was at various times president of the North Yorkshire Red Cross, Yorkshire Association for the Disabled, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the Countrywide Workshops Charitable Trust; she was also vice-president of the British Sports Association for the Disabled, the British Disabled Drivers’ Trust, the Association of Occupational Therapists and Action for Dysphasic Adults. She chaired the drug rehabilitation charity Phoenix House and was a member of Peterlee & Newton Aycliffe New Town Corporation.
In the Lords, she was vice-chairman of all-party committees on drug misuse and Aids, and a member of the Select Committee on Science & Technology. In 2011 she was awarded an honorary fellowship by the Royal College of Nursing. She was appointed deputy lieutenant for North Yorkshire in 1991.
The 2nd Earl of Swinton died in 2006. Lady Masham is survived by her adopted son and daughter; the earldom passed to her husband’s younger brother.
Baroness Masham, born April 14 1935, died March 12 2023