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The Right HonourableThe Baroness Bottomley of NettlestonePC DL
Official portrait, 2018
Shadow Secretary of State for National Heritage
In office 2 May 1997 – 11 June 1997
Leader	John Major
Preceded by	Jack Cunningham
Succeeded by	Francis Maude
Secretary of State for National Heritage
In office 5 July 1995 – 2 May 1997
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Stephen Dorrell
Succeeded by	Chris Smith
Secretary of State for Health
In office 10 April 1992 – 5 July 1995
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	William Waldegrave
Succeeded by	Stephen Dorrell
Minister of State for Health
In office 28 October 1989 – 10 April 1992
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher John Major
Preceded by	Anthony Trafford
Succeeded by	Brian Mawhinney
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment
In office 25 July 1988 – 28 October 1989
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	David Trippier
Succeeded by	David Heathcoat-Amory
Chancellor of the University of Hull
In office 12 April 2006 – 1 July 2023
Vice Chancellor	Dave Petley (2022-23)
Preceded by	Robert Armstrong
Succeeded by	Alan Johnson
Parliamentary representation Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Incumbent Assumed office 24 June 2005 Life Peerage Member of Parliament for South West Surrey In office 4 May 1984 – 11 April 2005 Preceded by Maurice Macmillan Succeeded by Jeremy Hunt
Personal details
Born	(1948-03-12) 12 March 1948 (age 76) Dunoon, Scotland
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Peter Bottomley ​(m. 1967)​
Children	Josh · Cecilia · Adela
Education	Putney High School
Alma mater	University of Essex (BA) London School of Economics (MA)
Signature
Website	Official website
Virginia Bottomley's voice from the BBC Front Row, 25 April 2013

Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Bottomley, Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, PC DL (née Garnett, born 12 March 1948) is a British Conservative Party politician and headhunter. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons from 1984 to 2005. She became a member of the House of Lords in 2005.

Early life and career

Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Garnett was born in Dunoon, Scotland, to Barbara Rutherford-Smith, Jarrow hunger marcher, a teacher and elected Conservative member of the Inner London Education Authority and W. John Garnett CBE, former director of what was then called The Industrial Society, grandson of Cambridge physicist and educational adviser William Garnett and of Sir Edward Poulton, Hope professor of zoology at Oxford. Her paternal aunt was Labour Greater London Council member Peggy Jay. She met Peter Bottomley, her future husband, when she was 12 years old; they wed seven years later In 1967.

Bottomley was at Putney High School, in southwest London, before studying sociology at the University of Essex. She graduated again MSc at the London School of Economics.

She began her working life as a social scientist and was a researcher for the Child Poverty Action Group. She was a psychiatric social worker with the Institute of Psychiatry, a magistrate (Justice of the Peace), and she chaired an Inner London Juvenile Court.

Member of Parliament and in government

After unsuccessfully contesting the Isle of Wight in the 1983 general election (34,904 votes), she was elected to Parliament with 21,545 votes in a by-election in 1984 (filling the seat left vacant by the death of Maurice Macmillan, son of former prime minister Harold Macmillan), as the Member for South West Surrey. She was PPS to Chris Patten and then to Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe. She received her first ministerial position in 1988 as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of the Environment and was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health in 1989. She was appointed a member of the Privy Council (PC) upon joining John Major's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Health in 1992, becoming the ninth woman to serve in the British cabinet. She served as Health Secretary until 1995.

Bottomley and Ann Widdecombe have been listed as co-founders of Lady Olga Maitland’s pro-nuclear Women and Families for Defence group.

She served as Secretary of State for National Heritage from 1995 to 1997. During this period, she appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996, wishing luck to the United Kingdom's entrant, Gina G, in her postcard.

After the 1997 general election, she returned to the backbenches, and became a headhunter at Odgers, where she headed and now chairs the company's Board & CEO Practice.

Retirement

She stepped down from the House of Commons when the 2005 general election was called. On 24 June 2005 she was created a life peer with the title Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, of St Helens in the County of Isle of Wight, the parish where she was baptised and celebrated her marriage.

Personal life

Bottomley is involved with charitable and academic bodies in addition to business. She was on the founding Council of the University of the Arts, London. She was a Council Member of the Ditchley Foundation and was President of Farnham Castle, Centre for International Briefing. From 2000 until May 2012 she sat on the Supervisory Board of Akzo Nobel, taking over Courtaulds and then ICI. She was a non-executive director of Bupa, a healthcare company. She was on the Advisory Council of the International Chamber of Commerce UK (ICC UK) and the Judge School of Management, Cambridge. Bottomley has been a trustee and is a fellow of the Industry and Parliament Trust. She was National President of the Abbeyfield Society and a Vice-Patron of Carers and of Cruse Bereavement Care. She was a lay canon of Guildford Cathedral, and a Freeman of the City of London.

In 2006, she was elected and installed as Chancellor of the University of Hull, succeeding Lord Armstrong of Ilminster in April 2006. She was also appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey on 22 March of that year and Sheriff of Hull since 2013. She is the longest serving trustee of The Economist newspaper.

Virginia Garnett married Peter Bottomley in 1967, after the birth of their eldest child; he was an MP from 1975 until 2024.

During her time in Prime Minister John Major's cabinet, the satirical puppet show Spitting Image often portrayed Major as having an unrequited crush on Bottomley.

Bottomley's family includes many figures in politics and public life. Her brother, Christopher Garnett, was the chief executive of train operating company GNER. Her aunt Pauline married Roland Hunt who is not connected to Sir Nicholas Hunt, father of Jeremy Hunt who succeeded her as MP.

Her cousins include Peter Jay (the former British Ambassador to the United States and son-in-law to James Callaghan), and Lord Hunt of Chesterton (father of historian and former Labour MP Tristram Hunt).

More distant relatives include Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay and Baron Jay of Ewelme (former FCO PUSS and British Ambassador to France).

Julia Cleverdon married Bottomley's late father, John. Her husband's niece is Kitty Ussher (a former Labour minister).

References

1. "Mrs Virginia Bottomley (Hansard)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
2. "Virginia Bottomley". Front Row. 25 April 2013. BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 7 June 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
3. "Obituary: John Garnett". The Independent. 18 September 1997. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
4. "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33333. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Archived from the original on 30 April 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2018. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
5. "Poor families 'can expect little help with food bills'". The Times. No. 58331. London. 22 November 1971. p. 3.
6. Whitehead, Peter (1 December 2010). "Interview: A discreet new life away from the spotlight". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
7. ^ "Looking back on 21 years as an MP". BBC. 27 April 2005. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
8. Geoffrey Parkhouse (26 July 1988). "Thatcher surprise shake-up for Health". The Glasgow Herald. p. 1. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
9. ^ "Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone". www.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 18 June 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
10. William E. Schmidt (12 April 1992). "In London's Shock, A Cabinet Is Named". New York Times. Archived from the original on 31 May 2013. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
11. ^ "Bottomley of Nettlestone". Who's Who. A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U8194. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
12. Mikhailova, Anna (23 December 2019). "Sir Peter Bottomley, the new Father of the House: 'Each department I was in, I would say - you have at least one minister too many'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
13. "Care in the community failures". BBC News. 20 November 1998.
14. Martin, Lorna (19 August 2006). "The battle of Greenham Common is over. But their spirit still burns". The Guardian.
15. Alberge, Dalya (7 July 1995). "Bottomley keen to join her 'Ministry of the Future'". The Times. No. 65313. London. p. 9.
16. Hall, James 21 May 2021. "Just a Little Bit... crooked: How Gina G's Ooh Aah Eurovision glory was stolen". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 March 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
17. "Virginia Bottomley". Odgers Berndtson. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
18. "No. 57688". The London Gazette. 29 June 2005. p. 8439.
19. "Abbeyfield Society: Patrons". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
20. "Ex-Minister is new Uni Chancellor". BBC News. 26 January 2006. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
21. "Deputy Lieutenant Commissions Lieutenancy of Surrey 22 March 2006". The London Gazette. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
22. BBC Lord Mandelson picked for High Steward of Hull post Archived 13 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine, 7 February 2013; accessed 21 March 2014.
23. "Our Trustees". The Economist Group. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
24. Durham, Michael (12 July 1992). "Virginia's early summer of love, books and a baby". The Independent. London, UK. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
25. "Biography at John Major site". Archived from the original on 30 August 2010. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
26. "Bottomley, Sir Peter (James)". Who's Who. A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U8193. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
27. Billen, Andrew (28 March 2008). "An entire political era was covered in rubber by Spitting Image". The Times. No. 69283. London, England. p. 11. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
28. Harper, Keith (21 July 2001). "Profile: Christopher Garnett". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
29. ^ Moya, Elena (2010). "Big-name hunter Virginia Bottomley fights to bag more jobs for women". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
30. Davidson, Andrew (2007), "The MT interview: Julia Cleverdon" Archived 4 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Management Today, 28 September 2007; retrieved 3 January 2011.
31. "She fought for the euro; now one of Brown's stars will be the City's champion". EMAG/The Times. 9 July 2007. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2009.

External links

• Debrett's People of Today
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Virginia Bottomley

v t e Health secretaries of the United Kingdom
Ministers of Health	Christopher Addison Alfred Mond Arthur Griffith-Boscawen Neville Chamberlain William Joynson-Hicks John Wheatley Neville Chamberlain Arthur Greenwood Neville Chamberlain Hilton Young Kingsley Wood Walter Elliot Malcolm MacDonald Ernest Brown Henry Willink Aneurin Bevan Hilary Marquand Harry Crookshank Iain Macleod Robin Turton Dennis Vosper Derek Walker-Smith Enoch Powell Anthony Barber Kenneth Robinson
Secretaries of State for Social Services	Richard Crossman Sir Keith Joseph Barbara Castle David Ennals Patrick Jenkin Norman Fowler John Moore
Secretaries of State for Health	Kenneth Clarke William Waldegrave Virginia Bottomley Stephen Dorrell Frank Dobson Alan Milburn John Reid Patricia Hewitt Alan Johnson Andy Burnham Andrew Lansley Jeremy Hunt
Secretaries of State for Health and Social Care	Jeremy Hunt Matt Hancock Sajid Javid Steve Barclay Thérèse Coffey Steve Barclay Victoria Atkins Wes Streeting

v t e Major Cabinet
Cabinet Members	Jonathan Aitken Kenneth Baker Virginia Bottomley Peter Brooke Kenneth Clarke Viscount Cranborne Stephen Dorrell Michael Forsyth Roger Freeman John Gummer William Hague Jeremy Hanley Michael Heseltine Douglas Hogg Michael Howard David Hunt Douglas Hurd Tom King Norman Lamont Ian Lang Peter Lilley John MacGregor Lord Mackay John Major Brian Mawhinney Patrick Mayhew David Mellor Tony Newton Chris Patten John Patten Michael Portillo John Redwood Malcolm Rifkind Gillian Shephard Lord Waddington Lord Wakeham William Waldegrave George Young
Also attended meetings	Norman Fowler Alastair Goodlad Richard Ryder

• 1948 births
• Living people
• People from Dunoon
• Politicians from London
• People educated at Putney High School
• Alumni of the University of Essex
• Alumni of the London School of Economics
• Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
• Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
• Secretaries of State for National Heritage
• English Anglicans
• Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
• Secretaries of State for Health (UK)
• Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
• People associated with the University of Hull
• People associated with the University of Surrey
• UK MPs 1983–1987
• UK MPs 1987–1992
• UK MPs 1992–1997
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• UK MPs 2001–2005
• Conservative Party (UK) life peers
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• Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II
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• Bottomley family