trenchard

Wednesday, January 01, 2025

Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes, PC 1928-2025

 The Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes, PC, who died 1 January, 2025, aged, 96, was a Conservative politician, life peer, and a government minister in the Margaret Thatcher's administration.

She was Conservative MP for Gloucester from 1970 to 1987, and was Minister of State for Consumer Affairs in the Department of Trade between 1979 and 1982. She chaired the National Consumer Council from 1987-89 and was later a vice-president of the National Union of Townswomen’s Guilds and chair of the National Waterways Museum.

She was born Sarah Amelia Viner, 26 July, 1928 (Who's Who 2004 says 26 July 1930), daughter of Mark Viner and his wife, Jeanette. She was raised and educated in Sheffield, where her father founded a steel and cutlery company. She attended Lowther College and worked as a social worker in London before entering politics. She changed her forenames from Sarah Amelia to Sally in 1968.

She married firstly, 1949, Henry M. Oppenheim, a property tycoon (who died in 1980), and married 2ndly, in 1984, John Barnes. She assumed the surname Oppenheim-Barnes, and was raised to the peerage for life in 1989 as Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes, of Gloucester in the County of Gloucestershire. She was sworn of the Privy Council in 1989.

-=-



No comments: