A Red Leather Despatch Box stamped with the Royal Insignia EIIR and 'Baroness in Waiting'. It is secured with a seven lever Chubb lock retaining it's original key and with a rear carrying leather handle. The box was the property of Baroness Trumpington* who was Baroness in Waiting to the Queen from 1983-1985 and 1992-1997.
Weight 4 kg
Dimensions 46 x 31 x 10 cm
Jean Alys Barker, Baroness Trumpington (23 October 1922 – 26 November 2018), had a long distinguished career in and out of Parliament.
She worked in naval intelligence at Bletchley Park from October 1940, making use of her knowledge of the German language to crack naval codes. In 1963, she was elected as councillor for Trumpington on Cambridge City Council. In 1971/2, she served as Mayor of Cambridge.
As a Conservative politician she served on many enquiries and committees. A gradual move up the career ladder into public life, Jean Barker was appointed to the Board of Visitors of the women's gaol attached to Pentonville Prison in London. She was one of the few who could get along well with the leader of her party, Margaret Thatcher. In addition, the former councillor was appointed by the Labour government to the Mental Health Tribunal, before community care had been introduced. The following year, 1976, she was made a General Commissioner for Taxes, based on a competent showing with the city's finances. She served on various public bodies, including chair of the Air Transport Users Committee (1979–80). Her interest in women's affairs became known for all the world to see when Thatcher became Prime Minister. Appointed as UK Representative to the UN Commission on the Status of Women it was her role to promote women's equality, marriage and divorce, healthcare, child-rearing, and human rights. On leaving the UN post and entering the House of Lords, she was introduced as a Baroness-in-waiting from 1983 to 1985. Thatcher recognised her capabilities when she was given a ministerial post. Despite being in the Lords as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Security from 1985 to 1987.
Her last role was once again as a Baroness-in-waiting to the Queen from 1992 to 1997, when a change of government ended her career.
In December 2012, she acknowledged the campaign for the government to give official recognition to the work of Alan Turing. In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, the signatories, including Stephen Hawking, the physicist; Lord Rees, the astronomer royal; and Sir Paul Nurse, the president of the Royal Society, called on Prime Minister David Cameron to support a pardon for Turing's 1952 conviction for homosexuality. Trumpington worked at Bletchley Park during the war at the same time as Turing.
Trumpington was appointed an Officer of the National Order of Merit by the French Republic. On 4 February 1980 she was created a life peer, choosing the title Baroness Trumpington, of Sandwich in the County of Kent.
She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 2005. Leaving government she was granted an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath). Two years later she was recognised for her voluntary activities as Honorary Associate of the Royal College of Volunteer Services.
Most of the above information has been garnered from Wikipedia. If you wish see a more detailed description of Baroness Trumpington's life please click on this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Barker,_Baroness_Trumpington
The position of the Baroness in Waiting in the House of Lords has the same constitutional position as departmental ministers. Their role in the House of Lords is different from that of Whips in the Commons, which is predominantly party management. A Lords Whip has an active role at the despatch box promoting and defending departmental policy which involve answering questions, responding to debates. If the department concerned does not have a departmental minister in the House of Lords, all of that department’s business will fall to a Whip.
