She served on boards of various cultural bodies, including the BBC Advisory Board and Glyndebourne, and was a keen early supporter of the University of Sussex. In 1958, she became the first woman to take a seat in the House of Lords in her own right. A 1963 profile in "The Observer" said: "the W.V.S. has brought out in her the latent political talent and the strength of character that once induced someone to say of her that had she been a man she would have become Prime Minister".