Virginia Bottomley

Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Bottomley, Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, PC, DL (née Garnett, born 12 March 1948) is a British Conservative Party politician and headhunter. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons from 1984 to 2005. She was raised to the peerage in 2005.

The Right Honourable The Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone PC DL
Bottomley in 2018
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In office 2 May 1997 – 11 June 1997
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Chris Smith (National Heritage)
Succeeded by	Francis Maude
Secretary of State for National Heritage
In office 5 July 1995 – 2 May 1997
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Stephen Dorrell
Succeeded by	Chris Smith (Culture, Media and Sport)
Secretary of State for Health
In office 10 April 1992 – 5 July 1995
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	William Waldegrave
Succeeded by	Stephen Dorrell
Minister of State for Health
In office 28 October 1989 – 10 April 1992
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher John Major
Preceded by	Anthony Trafford
Succeeded by	Brian Mawhinney
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment
In office 25 July 1988 – 28 October 1989
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	David Trippier
Succeeded by	David Heathcoat-Amory
Parliamentary representation Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Incumbent Assumed office 24 June 2005 Life Peerage Member of Parliament for South West Surrey In office 4 May 1984 – 11 April 2005 Preceded by Maurice Macmillan Succeeded by Jeremy Hunt
Personal details
Born	(1948-03-12) 12 March 1948[1] Dunoon, Scotland
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Peter Bottomley ( m. 1967)
Alma mater	University of Essex London School of Economics

Early life and career

Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Garnett was born in Dunoon, Scotland, to Barbara Rutherford-Smith, a teacher and elected Conservative member of the Inner London Education Authority and W. John Garnett CBE, former director of what was then called The Industrial Society, grandson of physicist and educational adviser William Garnett.[3][4] Her paternal aunt was Labour Greater London Council Member Margaret (Peggy) Jay. She first met Peter Bottomley, her future husband, when she was 12 years old; they wed in 1967.

Bottomley was educated at Putney High School, an independent school for girls in Putney in southwest London, before going up to the University of Essex to study sociology (BA). She later graduated from the London School of Economics with the degree of Master of Arts (MA).

She began her working life as a social scientist, researcher for Child Poverty Action Group, social worker, magistrate (Justice of the Peace), and Chairman of the Inner London Juvenile Court.

Member of Parliament and in government

After unsuccessfully contesting the Isle of Wight in the 1983 general election (34,904 votes), she was elected to Parliament with 21,545 votes in a by-election in 1984 (filling the seat left vacant by the death of Maurice Macmillan, son of former prime minister Harold Macmillan),[5] as the Member for South West Surrey, was PPS to Chris Patten and then to Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, received her first ministerial position in 1988 as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of the Environment[6][7] and was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health in 1989.[7] She was appointed a member of the Privy Council (PC) upon joining John Major's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Health in 1992[8][9] and served until 1995. She was the ninth woman in the British cabinet.

She then served as Secretary of State for National Heritage from 1995 to 1997. After the 1997 general election, she returned to the backbenches, and become a headhunter at Odgers, where she now chairs the company's Board & CEO Practice.[10]

Retirement

She stepped down from the House of Commons when the 2005 general election was called.[5] On 24 June 2005 she was created a life peer with the title Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, of St Helens in the County of Isle of Wight,[11] the parish where she was baptised and celebrated her marriage.

Personal life

Bottomley is involved with charitable and academic bodies in addition to business. She was on the founding Council of the University of the Arts, London. She is also a Council Member of the Ditchley Foundation and was President of Farnham Castle, Centre for International Briefing. From 2000 until May 2012 she has sat on the Supervisory Board of Akzo Nobel. She was a non-executive director of Bupa, a healthcare company. She is on the Advisory Council of the International Chamber of Commerce UK (ICC UK) and was for the Judge School of Management, Cambridge. Bottomley has been a trustee and is a fellow of the Industry and Parliament Trust. She was National President of the Abbeyfield Society[12] and a Vice-Patron of Carers and of Cruse Bereavement Care. She was a lay canon of Guildford Cathedral, and a Freeman of the City of London.

In 2006, she was elected and installed as Chancellor of the University of Hull, succeeding Lord Armstrong of Ilminster in April 2006.[9] She was also appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey in March of that year and Sheriff of Hull in 2013.[13]

Virginia Garnett married Sir Peter Bottomley in 1967, after the birth of their eldest child;[14][15] since 1975 he has been an MP. They live in Westminster and Milford, Surrey; they have three children, Cecilia, Adela and Joshua and eight grandchildren.

During her time in Prime Minister John Major's cabinet, the satirical puppet show Spitting Image often portrayed Major as having an unrequited crush on Bottomley; years later, it was revealed that Major was having an affair with Edwina Currie at the time.[16]

Bottomley's family includes many figures in politics and public life. Her brother, Christopher Garnett, was the chief executive of train operating company GNER. Her aunt Pauline married Roland Hunt who is not, contrary to persistent false rumour, connected to Sir Nicholas Hunt, father to Jeremy Hunt who succeeded her as MP.

Her cousins include Peter Jay (the former British Ambassador to the United States and son-in-law to James Callaghan), and Lord Hunt of Chesterton (father of historian and former Labour MP Tristram Hunt).

More distant relatives include Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, and Baron Jay of Ewelme (a former British Ambassador to France) .

Dame Julia Cleverdon married Bottomley's late father, John.[17] Her husband's niece is Kitty Ussher (a former Labour minister).

References

1. "Mrs Virginia Bottomley (Hansard)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
2. "Virginia Bottomley". Front Row. 25 April 2013. BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 7 June 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
3. "Obituary: John Garnett". The Independent. 18 September 1997. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 April 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
5. "Looking back on 21 years as an MP". BBC. 27 April 2005. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
6. Geoffrey Parkhouse (26 July 1988). "Thatcher surprise shake-up for Health". The Glasgow Herald. p. 1. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
7. "Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone". www.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 18 June 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
8. William E. Schmidt (12 April 1992). "In London's Shock, A Cabinet Is Named". New York Times. Archived from the original on 31 May 2013. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
9. "University of Hull announces next chancellor – Baroness Bottomley". University of Hull. 26 January 2006. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
10. Berndtson, Odgers. "Virginia Bottomley". Odgers Berndtson. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
11. "No. 57688". The London Gazette. 29 June 2005. p. 8439.
12. "Abbeyfield Society: Patrons". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
13. BBC Lord Mandelson picked for High Steward of Hull post Archived 13 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine, 7 February 2013; accessed 21 March 2014.
14. Durham, Michael (12 July 1992). "Virginia's early summer of love, books and a baby". The Independent. London, UK. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
15. "Biography at John Major site". Archived from the original on 30 August 2010. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
16. Billen, Andrew (28 March 2008). "An entire political era was covered in rubber by Spitting Image". The Times (69283). London, England. p. 11. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
17. Davidson, Andrew (2007), "The MT interview: Julia Cleverdon" Archived 4 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Management Today, 28 September 2007; retrieved 3 January 2011.

External links

• Debrett's People of Today
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Virginia Bottomley

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Maurice Macmillan	Member of Parliament for South West Surrey 1984–2005	Succeeded by Jeremy Hunt
Political offices
Preceded by William Waldegrave	Secretary of State for Health 1992–95	Succeeded by Stephen Dorrell
Preceded by Stephen Dorrell	Secretary of State for National Heritage 1995–97	Succeeded by Chris Smith as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport