The Right Honourable

The Lady Grimond
Laura Grimond
Born
Laura Miranda Bonham-Carter

13 October 1918
Marylebone, London, England
Died15 February 1994(1994-02-15) (aged 75)
OccupationPolitician
Political partyLiberal
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1938; died 1993)​
Children4
Parent(s)Sir Maurice Bonham Carter
Violet Asquith
Relatives
FamilyBonham 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:

  • (Joseph) Andrew Grimond (26 March 1939 – 23 March 1966),[4] a sub-editor of The Scotsman, lived in Edinburgh until his suicide at the age of 26.
  • Grizelda "Gelda" (Jane) Grimond (1942–2017), who had a daughter Katherine (born 1973) by the film and stage director Tony Richardson.
  • John (Jasper) Grimond (born October 1946), a former foreign editor of The Economist as Johnny Grimond, now writer at large for the publication, who in 1973 married Kate Fleming (born 1946), elder daughter of the writer Peter Fleming and actress Celia Johnson, and has three children with her. He is the main author of The Economist Style Guide[5]
  • (Thomas) Magnus Grimond (born 13 June 1959),[6] journalist and financial correspondent, married to travel author Laura Grimond (née Raison), and has 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

General election 1970: West Aberdeenshire
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Colin Campbell Mitchell 18,396 46.6 +6.9
Liberal Laura Miranda Grimond 12,847 32.5 -10.7
Labour Walter W. Hay 6,141 15.5 -1.6
SNP John G. McKinlay 2,112 5.3 n/a
Majority 5,549 14.1 17.6
Turnout 39,496 75.0
Conservative gain from Liberal Swing +8.8

Other

In 1968 Grimond was a co-founder of the Orkney Heritage Society.[10]

References

  1. ↑ England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007
  2. ↑ "Wedding Of Miss Bonham Carter 1938". British Pathe News. Retrieved 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. ↑ "Hon. Laura Miranda Bonham Carter".
  5. ↑ "The Hon. John Grimond". Archived from the original on 12 June 2013.
  6. ↑ Barberis, Peter (2005). Liberal Lion: Jo Grimond: A Political Life. London: Bloomsbury. p. 81. ISBN 9781850436270. Retrieved 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
  10. ↑ "Laura Grimond, Registered Charity no. SC004033". Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
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