Angela Rumbold

Dame Angela Rumbold, DBE (born 11 August 1932) was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) until 1997.

Education

Born as Angela Christina Rosemary Jones, she was educated at the Perse School for Girls, Cambridge, Notting Hill & Ealing High School and King's College London. She qualified as a Barrister after earning her LLB, but never practised. She travelled across the USA with her father, a physicist who was Pro-Rector of the Imperial College until his death.

Marriage and early career

She married John Rumbold, a solicitor, by whom she has two sons and a daughter and, as of January 2007, seven grandchildren.

She returned to a working life after raising her children and worked as the Chief Executive for a charity known as The National Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital. After that, and because she had become a local councillor, she went to work at the Greater London Council as a researcher, transferring across to work on the London desk at Conservative Central Office.

She served on many national committees including the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body and was Chairman of the old Teachers’ Negotiating Committee until it was closed down by Act of Parliament.

Politician

Rumbold served as a councillor in the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames between 1974 and 1983. She was chairman of the National Association for Children in Hospital.

In 1982 Bruce Douglas-Mann, the MP for Mitcham and Morden, left the Labour Party to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He decided to resign as an MP and seek re-election under the SDP banner. The resulting by-election was held during the Falklands War and was won by Rumbold.

Angela Rumbold served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Transport, Under Secretary at the Department of Environment, Minister of State for Education and Deputy for the Secretary of State for Education, and Deputy for the Secretary of State at the Home Office; in 1992 she went to be Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.

At the 1997 general election she lost her seat to Labour's Siobhain McDonagh.

chool governor

On leaving the House of Commons in 1997 she returned to many of her voluntary activities. She is now Chairman of the Governing Body of both Danes Hill School in Oxshott and Surbiton High School in the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames, as well as Vice Chair of the Governing Body of Tolworth Girls’ School, a large comprehensive school also in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

She is a former Chair of Governors of Wimbledon High School and a former Governor of More House Girls’ School in Knightsbridge. She was Chair of the Court of Governors of Mill Hill School for nine years and set up its Pre-prep School Grimsdells. She also chaired the Minerva Fund for replacement of bursaries in Girls' Day School Trust schools after the closure of the Assisted Places Scheme.

She is co-Chair of the Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools, and Chair of the Finance and General Purposes Committee of the Independent Schools Council. She is a member of the Trust and Governing Council of the United Church Schools Trust, and Chair of the United Learning Trust.

References

* "Times Guide to the House of Commons", Times Newspapers Limited, 1983 and 1997 editions
* [http://www.qub.ac.uk/cawp/UK%20bios/UK_bios_80s.htm QUB]
* [http://www.jkwebdesign.net/radiojackie/politics.htm Radio Jackie]