TRUMPINGTON, The Rt Hon Baroness DCVO (Jean Alys nee CAMPBELL-HARRIS) 1922-2018

[Richard R]

This builds on a brief earlier post which can be found here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/peerage-news/rfElmQQGLL0

She died on Monday 26 November 2018. She was d of Maj Arthur Edward CAMPBELL-HARRIS (1888-1970) by his 1921 m (reg Q4 London) to Doris Marie (1892-1963) d of Theodore ROBSON (b c 1853 d 1926 reg Q2 London, nee Rosenberg) by his 1891 m to Gertrude TRIER (d 1958). She m 1954 William Alan BARKER (1923-88) and had a son (Hon Adam Campbell BARKER (b 1955) m 1985 Elizabeth Mary MARSDEN (b 1971), a scion of the DILLON viscounts and of the DILLON Irish gentry family as well as various other Irish & Scots peerage and gentry families, and had a son and a dau).

Telegraph online obit: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/26/baroness-trumpington-bletchley-park-code-breaker-dies-age-96/

EXTRACT

Baroness Trumpington, a Bletchley Park code-breaker famed for flicking two fingers up at a fellow Tory peer, has died at the age of 96, her son has said.

...Lady Trumpington only bowed out from the House of Lords, where she was celebrated as one of Parliament's most colourful characters, last year.

...She took her seat in the Lords in 1980 and was a government whip and minister during several periods in the 1980s and 90s.

Guardian online obit: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/27/trumpington-bletchey-park-codebreaker-dies-96

...Her death was confirmed by her son, Adam Barker, and senior Conservative party members on Monday evening. “My mother passed away this afternoon in her sleep. She did not make it to October 2022 [age 100] .. but she had a bloody good innings,” Barker wrote on Twitter.

...Trumpington was born Jean Alys Campbell-Harris, the eldest of three children of the American heiress Doris Robson and Maj Arthur Campbell-Harris.

In an interview with the Observer in 2014, she said her childhood had not been entirely happy. “I was the only girl, but not very pretty, and my two younger brothers were adored by my mother.

“Nobody loved you. There was absolutely no affection, and this inhibited me for a very long time: How to express affection and how not to overdo it. Well … I’ve always overdone it. It’s in my nature. I’ve only got one child and you’ve got to be loving when you’ve only got one.”

Trumpington met the man she would marry, Alan Barker, while they were both working in the US. They were married from 1954 until his death in 1988.

The Independent online obit: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bletchley-park-codebreaker-baroness-trumpington-dies-tory-peer-two-fingers-a8653406.html

BBC Obit: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43756361

[Jelena JS]

it's great to have more detailed post

 

[Richard R]

Thanks. It's also great that Brooke got the news out so quickly in an earlier post. I had time to do a more detailed post at my leisure!

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Richard, thanks for fleshing out  my original post.  

You provided a lot of important details.

Thanks again.

Brooke

[colinp]

The entertaining obituary in today's Daily Telegraph has this story:-

In 1980, when she was created a life peer, she told Garter King of Arms that she wished to become Baroness Trumpington, after the Cambridge ward she had represented. But apparently the title belonged to somebody else. “Is there not another place near Cambridge you would like?” he asked.  “You don’t think I’m going to call myself Lady Six Mile Bottom, do you?” she demanded. She emerged as Baroness Trumpington.

It's a good story but maybe apocryphal as I don't think there has been another Trumpington peerage?

[Jonathan]

The entertaining obituary in today's Daily Telegraph has this story:-

In 1980, when she was created a life peer, she told Garter King of Arms that she wished to become Baroness Trumpington, after the Cambridge ward she had represented. But apparently the title belonged to somebody else. “Is there not another place near Cambridge you would like?” he asked.  “You don’t think I’m going to call myself Lady Six Mile Bottom, do you?” she demanded. She emerged as Baroness Trumpington.

It's a good story but maybe apocryphal as I don't think there has been another Trumpington peerage?

 The closest was probably Lord Todd of Trumpington (LP, cr. 1962). There may also be a Lord of the Manor of Trumpington. Can that preclude a peerage title based on the same place (in the way that Scottish clans do)?

[Al]

Not in either case afaik.

[Richard R]

From the Telegraph and Times of 30 November 2018: TRUMPINGTON, - Baroness TRUMPINGTON Jean Alys DCVO, PC died peacefully on 26th November 2018, aged 96, much loved widow of Alan Barker, mother of Adam and grandmother of Virginia and Christopher. Family funeral. A memorial service to be announced later....

[Richard R]

From the Times of 27 February 2019: THE RT HON THE BARONESS TRUMPINGTON  A Memorial Service for The Rt Hon The Baroness Trumpington DCVO, PC will be held at St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey, at Noon, on 25th June 2019. to apply for tickets online please access the website [...], entering 'Baroness Trumpington' in the website search box, then click on the link that appears and register for tickets, or alternatively write in for tickets, enclosing a stamped self-addressed envelope to Mr M Arnoldi, Room 25, Deans Yard, London [...]. TIckets will be posted by 14th June.