Barbara Castle Barbara Castle Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, PC, GCOT ("née" Betts; 6 October 1910 – 3 May 2002) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Blackburn from 1945 to 1979, making her the longest-serving female MP in the history of the House of Commons until that record was broken in 2007 by Gwyneth Dunwoody. She later became the Member of the European Parliament for Greater Manchester from 1979 to 1989 and subsequently a member of the House of Lords, having been granted a life peerage in 1990. One of the most significant
Carla Thorneycroft, Baroness Thorneycroft Carla Thorneycroft, Baroness Thorneycroft Carla Thorneycroft, Baroness Thorneycroft, DBE (12 February 1914 – 7 March 2007), was the wife of Conservative Party politician and Chancellor of the Exchequer Peter Thorneycroft. Lady Thorneycroft helped establish the Venice in Peril Fund and was a noted philanthropist and patroness of the arts. "Carla Maria Concetta Francesca Malagola, Contessa Cappi" was the elder daughter of the Italian Count Guido Malagola Cappi and his wife, Alexandra (née Dunbar-Marshall) who had come over with her mother from Natchez, Mississippi to settle in Europe. She was born in Paris, and grew up in Venice, where her paternal