Elizabeth_Smith,_Baroness_Smith_of_Gilmorehill

Elizabeth Smith, Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill

Elizabeth Smith, Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill

British politician and arts patron (born 1940)


Elizabeth Margaret Smith, Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill, DL (née Bennett; born 4 June 1940), is a British peer and patron of the arts. She is the widow of John Smith, who led the Labour Party from 1992 to 1994.

Quick Facts The Right HonourableThe Baroness Smith of GilmorehillDL, Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal ...

Born Elizabeth Margaret Bennett, Smith was educated at Hutchesons' Girls Grammar School and the University of Glasgow.[1]

Baroness Smith is the president of Scottish Opera and served as the chairman of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 1995 to 2012.[2] She is also a governor of the English-Speaking Union and a board member of the Centre for European Reform. Within a year of her husband's death, she was created a life peer as Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill, of Gilmorehill in the District of the City of Glasgow on 17 February 1995.[3] From 1998 to 2001, she served as president of Birkbeck College, University of London.[1] In 2002, she was elected a fellow of Birkbeck, one of the college's highest honours.[1]

Smith retired from the House of Lords in February 2025,[4] having not spoken in the Lords chamber since 1999.[5]

Smith received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1998.[6]

She has three daughters, including Sarah Smith, who is the BBC News North America Editor, and Catherine Smith, who is Advocate General for Scotland.[7]


References

  1. "Baroness Elizabeth Smith of Gilmorehill". Birkbeck.
  2. "No. 53963". The London Gazette. 22 February 1995. p. 2512.
  3. "House of Lords Business". House of Lords. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  4. "Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates". www1.hw.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  5. "Ministerial appointment: 29 August 2024". Gov.UK. Retrieved 29 August 2024.

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