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
Violet Mond, Baroness Melchett Violet Mond, Baroness Melchett Violet Florence Mabel Mond, Baroness Melchett, (née Goetze; 27 December 1867 – 25 September 1945) was a British humanitarian and activist. Violet Goetze was the daughter of Rosina Hariet (née Bentley; died 1877) and James D. Goetze (died 1911). She was the sister of the painter and sculptor Sigismund Goetze. In 1894 she married the businessman and politician Alfred Mond, who had been introduced to her by her brother. He was created a baronet in 1910 (after which she was styled Lady Mond) and Baron Melchett in 1928. She was an active political hostess and worker,