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Caroline Ann Cox, Baroness Cox (born Caroline Ann McNeill Love, 6 July 1937) is a Cross-Bench peer who is Chief Executive of HART (The Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust). She currently serves as Vice President of the Royal College of Nursing. She has also supported disability causes for many years. She is a Member of the World Committee on Disability and a Judge for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award.

Background

Cox, the daughter of a surgeon from Hertford, was educated at Channing School in Highgate, London. She became a State Registered Nurse at London Hospital from 1958, and a Staff Nurse at Edgware General Hospital from 1960. She married Dr Murray Newall Cox in 1959, remaining with him until he died in 1997. The couple had three children, two sons and one daughter. In the late 1960s she studied for a degree at London University where she graduated with a First class honours degree in sociology in 1967; as a research assistant at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, she upgraded to a Masters Degree in Economics.

Academic career

On leaving, Cox became a Sociology Lecturer at the Polytechnic of North London rising to become Principal Lecturer. From 1974 she was Head of the Department of Sociology. In 1977 she moved to become Director of the Nursing Education Research Unit at Chelsea College of the University of London. She was also made a Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. She was also concerned with education and backed the reforms to reduce powers of Local Education Authorities in 1993, arguing for a more strongly religious element to teaching. Her sociology background led her to write books about the subject for nurses, and she also wrote a book attacking Corruption at the Polytechnic of North London in 1975. She was founder Chancellor of the University of Bournemouth.

She is also a member of the Standing Conference on Women's Organisations, a Vice-President of the Girl Guides Association, a Director of the Educational Research Trust, a Chief Executive of HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust), a Patron of the Medical Aid for Poland Fund, a Trustee of MERLIN (Medical Emergency Relief International), a member of the Physicians for Human Rights (UK) a Non-executive Director of the Andrei Sakarov Foundation, an International Representative for Elam Ministries, and Hon Vice-Chairman International Islamic Christian Organisation for Reconciliation and Reconstruction. In 2006 she received an honorary law degree from the University of Dundee and was installed as the Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University in the same year.

House of Lords

Her peerage was announced on December 15, 1982 on a list of "working peers", on the recommendation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and she took the title Baroness Cox, of Queensbury in Greater London. Cox initially sat as a Conservative and served briefly as a Baroness-in-Waiting (the junior rung of government) in 1985, but disliked the job and instead became a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords from 1986.

During the debates over the Education Reform Bill, Cox worked together with Michael Alison to ensure that a commitment was made that state education was 'broadly Christian' in character . She became a frequent contributor to Lords debates on Africa, and also raised other "forgotten conflicts" in letters to the press. She was already highlighting fighting in Sudan in September 1992 , and also highlighted the actions of the Azeri government in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In June 2002 Cox hosted a launch event for "Great Britain has Fallen!", a book written by Nigerian missionary Wale Babatunde , and also wrote endorsements saying the book "showed the way forward" for reversing Britain's moral decline . Her actions received some criticism as the book argues against multiculturalism, describes homosexuality as "destructive", directly compares abortion to the Holocaust, and says that the death of Diana, Princess of Wales "was God's punishment for sexual scandal". Labour MP Tom Watson called on the Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith to discipline Cox for her actions supporting the book

Cox is a Eurosceptic. She rebelled over the Maastricht Treaty, supporting an amendment to require a nationwide referendum on ratification on July 14, 1993. In May 2004 she joined three other Conservative peers in signing a letter published by the UK Independence Party urging voters to support it in the elections to the European Parliament. The Leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard, immediately withdrew the Conservative whip from the four . Cox now sits in the Lords as a crossbencher.

References

1. "Installation of new Chancellor, The Lord Patel". University of Dundee. Retrieved 2006-06-02.
2. John Barnes, "Michael Alison: Hard-working Conservative minister" (obituary), The Independent, May 31, 2004, p. 31
3. Letter to The Times, September 8, 1992
4. Letter to The Independent, January 26, 1994
5. "Londoner's Diary", Evening Standard, September 11, 2002, p. 12
6. Kamal Ahmed, "Top Tory backs blast at gays and lesbians", The Observer, September 15, 2002, p. 10
7. Chris McLaughlin, "TORIES' COX-UP: Baroness praises book on Diana's 'punishment'", Sunday Mirror, September 15, 2002, p. 23
8. House of Lords Hansard
9. Gaby Hinsliff, "Tories throw out rebel peers for backing UKIP", The Observer, May 30, 2004, p. 2

External links

• A Brit Who Gets It (Baroness Caroline Cox calls Islam out)
• Taking Islam Seriously

• 1937 births
• Living people
• Female life peers
• Life peers
• UK Conservative Party politicians