Laura Grimond Explained

Honorific Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lady Grimond
Birthname:Laura Miranda Bonham-Carter
Birth Date:13 October 1918
Birth Place:Marylebone, London, England
Occupation:Politician
Party:Liberal
Children:4
Parents:Sir Maurice Bonham Carter
Violet Asquith
Family:Bonham Carter, Asquith

Laura Miranda Grimond, Baroness Grimond (née Bonham-Carter; 13 October 1918 – 15 February 1994) was a British Liberal Party politician, and the wife of party leader Jo Grimond.

Background

She was born in Marylebone, London,[1] the daughter of Sir Maurice Bonham Carter and Liberal politician Violet Asquith. She was the granddaughter of Liberal Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith. She was also an elder sister of Mark Bonham Carter, who was the Liberal victor of the 1958 by-election at Torrington and Raymond Bonham Carter, who was the father of actress Helena Bonham Carter.

In 1938, she married Jo Grimond at St Margaret's, Westminster.[2] [3] The couple had four children:

Political career

Laura Grimond was Liberal candidate for the West Aberdeenshire division at the 1970 General Election. West Aberdeenshire was a seat the Liberals had gained from the Conservatives at the previous general election. The Liberal victor James Davidson decided not to defend his seat and instead campaigned for Laura Grimond. Her prospects of holding the seat lessened when a SNP candidate intervened in the contest. However The Times, the Conservative leaning national newspaper made a point of endorsing her by name; through "an invocation of 'the Asquith ideal', which called strenuously for more Liberal MPs and in particular for Mrs Laura Grimond."[7] In a difficult election for the Liberal Party nationwide, the Conservatives regained the seat, beating her by over 5,000 votes. She did not stand for parliament again.[8] She continued to be active for the Liberal Party at a national level; From 1983 to 1985 she was President of the Women's Liberal Federation. Three times during the mid-1980s she appeared as a party spokesperson on BBC's Question Time. She was also politically active locally in Orkney; She was a councillor for Firth & Harray and chairman of Orkney Islands Council's Housing Committee.[9]

Electoral record

Other

In 1968 Grimond was a co-founder of the Orkney Heritage Society.

Notes and References

  1. England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007
  2. Web site: Wedding Of Miss Bonham Carter 1938 . British Pathe News . 13 September 2021.
  3. ‘GRIMOND’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 30 Nov 2016
  4. Web site: Hon. Laura Miranda Bonham Carter.
  5. Web site: The Hon. John Grimond. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130612101035/http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/g/18593/John%20Jasper+GRIMOND.aspx. 2013-06-12.
  6. Book: Barberis, Peter . 2005 . Liberal Lion: Jo Grimond: A Political Life . London . Bloomsbury . 81 . 9781850436270 . 25 April 2021 .
  7. The British General Election of 1970 by Butler & Pinto Duschinsky, page 249
  8. British Parliamentary Election Results 1974–1983, FWS Craig
  9. Obituary: Laura Grimond, The Independent 17 February 1994