The Baroness Holderness, who died 29 March, 2026, aged 98, was widow of the life peer the Baron Holderness.
She was sometime President of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for the Disabled.
She was born in October, 1927, as Eleanor Diana Myrtle Kellett, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Orlando Kellett, DSO, FRGS (1902-1943), Irish Guards, and his wife the former Helen Myrtle Dorothy Atherley (died 16 March, 1976), and married 15 April, 1947, the then Hon Richard Frederick Wood, MP, PC, DL, (born 5 Oct, 1920), third son of the 1st Earl of Halifax, KG, GCSI (1881-1959), sometime Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary (the 'Holy Fox') by his wife the former Lady Dorothy Augusta Evelyn Onslow (1885-1976), scion of the Earls of Onslow, CI, DCVO, sometime Extra Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
Her husband was a Conservative politician who held numerous ministerial positions from 1955 to 1974. He was distinctive in having lost both his legs in action in North Africa during World War II. He was Conservative MP for Bridlington from 1950 to 1979. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Derick Heathcoat-Amory during his time successively as Minister of Pensions between 1951 and 1953, Minister of State at the Board of Trade between 1953 and 1954, and Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries between 1954 and 1955. Wood was then Joint Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance between 1955 and 1958. He was minister of Labour between 1958 and 1959 and at the minister of Power between 1959 and 1963. Wood urged Prime Minister Anthony Eden not to respond to the Suez Crisis with overt aggression, but his advice was ignored because of his father's association with appeasement and the Munich Agreement.
In 1959 Wood was sworn of the Privy Council served as Minister of Pensions and National Insurance from 1963 until the Conservative Party lost power in 1964.[3] When the Conservatives returned to power in 1970, he was Minister of Overseas Development for the duration of the Heath Government.
After he retired as an MP, her husband was raised to the peerage for life as Baron Holderness, of Bishop Wilton in the County of Humberside. From 1987 to 1991 he was an energetic chairman of the Disablement Services Authority, charged with the improvement of artificial limb services: he then served as a junior Minister on services for disabled people.
She was widowed 11 Aug, 2002.
Lady Holderness leaves issue, a son, the Hon Edward Orlando Charles Wood (born 14 Aug, 1951), and a daughter, the Hon Emma Myrtle Mary Anne (born 13 Feb, 1949), wife of Sir Edward Nicholas Brooksbank, 3rd Baronet (born 4 Oct, 1944).
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