Katharine Elliot, Baroness Elliot Of Harwood

Katharine Elliot, Baroness Elliot of Harwood, DBE (born Katharine Tennant; 15 January 1903 – 3 January 1994), was a British public servant and politician.

Early Life and Family Background:

She was born in 1903 as the daughter of Sir Charles Tennant, Bt., a Scottish industrialist and politician, and his second wife, Marguerite Miles, daughter of Colonel Charles William Miles, MP. She was a cousin of Sir Philip Miles. As a child, she spent time at 10 Downing Street, where her half-sister Margot Asquith, wife of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, resided. During visits, she is recorded to have thrown her teddybear out of a window at protesting Suffragettes. She was educated privately at home by governesses, attended Abbot's Hill School, and studied in Paris. She was presented at court to George V as a debutante but expressed more interest in politics than social events. She later studied at the London School of Economics and was proficient in French, as well as an accomplished violinist, organist, equestrienne, and golfer.

Marriage:

On 2 April 1934, she married Walter Elliott, a doctor and Unionist Party Member of Parliament who was serving as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Ramsay MacDonald's National Government. This was her second marriage; her first husband died on their honeymoon, fifteen years earlier. Walter Elliott was the son of a livestock auctioneer. Katharine gained expertise in trading farm animals and agricultural equipment. Their wedding gift, funded by friends and local farmers, was a tractor.

Political and Public Service Career:

Katharine Elliot became actively involved in Conservative politics, contributing by writing speeches and campaigning for her husband's electoral efforts, particularly supporting the enactment of the Milk Marketing Board. Despite her Conservative association, she maintained Liberal ideals on issues such as prison reform and opposition to capital punishment.

Between 1939 and 1949, she served as chair of the National Association of Mixed Clubs and Girls' Clubs (later Youth Clubs UK) and was a member of the Home Office advisory committee on the treatment of offenders from 1946 to 1962, visiting all prisons in the UK. She also contributed to child care policies in Scotland (1956–1965), served as chair of the Conservative Women's National Committee (1954–1957), and chaired the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations (1956–1967). In 1963, she became the first chair of the Consumer Council.

International Engagements:

Elliot participated in three sessions of the UK delegation to the United Nations (1954, 1956, 1957). During the Suez crisis of 1956, she delivered a speech condemning the Soviet invasion of Hungary.

Honors and Recognitions:

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1946 and received the Grand Silver Cross of the Order of Merit of Austria in 1963. She appeared on the BBC's "The Brains Trust" in 1958, describing herself as an "unrepentant defender of votes for women."

Later Life:

After the death of her husband in 1958, she took over leadership of the family auctioneering firm and ran as the Conservative candidate for Glasgow Kelvingrove, narrowly losing in a by-election to Labour's Mary McAlister.

Peerage and House of Lords:

In 1958, she was elevated to the peerage as Baroness Elliot of Harwood, of Rulewater in the County of Roxburgh. She was among the first four women created peers under the Life Peerages Act 1958. She was the first woman peer to speak in the House of Lords, to propose the loyal address, and to pass a private bill through the House.

Death and Memorial:

She was injured falling from her parliamentary robes at the House of Lords in November 1993 and subsequently died at Hawick Cottage Hospital on 3 January 1994, aged 90. She was buried at Hobkirk parish church. A service of thanksgiving was held for her at the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster, in April 1994.

Her heraldic arms, granted in 1885 to her father and impaled with her husband's arms, feature symbols representing her family history, rural life, and personal interests. Her family motto was "Velis plenis" ("With full sails").