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Monday, November 27, 2023

Lady Arbuthnot 1919-2023

 Lady Arbuthnot, who died 13 November, 2023, aged 104, was the widow of Sir John Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet.

The former Margaret Jean Duff was born 29 September, 1919, scion of that landed gentry family, daughter of Alexander Gordon Duff (1884-1978), and his wife the former Janet Macfie Blaikie (1879-1972); and married 3 July, 1943, Maj John Sinclair-Wemyss Arbuthnot, MBE, TD (born 11 Feb, 1912), Conservative MP for Dover 1950-64,  and Parliamentary Private Secretary for the Minister of Pensions from 1952 to 1955 and for the Minister of Health from 1956 to 1957, a member of the Public Accounts Committee from 1955 to 1964. He also served as Second Church Estates Commissioner, the spokesman for the Church of England in the House of Commons, and as a Deputy Speaker. Arbuthnot was created a baronet in 1964 (one of the last to be created), and he died 13 June, 1992.

Lady Arbuthnot was the mother of two sons, Sir William, 2nd Bt (1950-2021), and James, Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom (life peer, former Conservative politician) (born 4 Aug, 1952), and three daughters, Elizabeth (born 1947), Louise (born 1954), and Alison (born 1957).

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