A baroness who helped crack Hitler’s code at Betchley Park before embarking on a colourful political career which saw her flick the V-sign in a parliamentary debate is to retire from the House of Lords.
Baroness Trumpington, 94, mingled with royalty as a young woman and worked as a Land Girl the Second World War before entering the world of politics.
Affectionately dubbed baroness Battleaxe, she was made a peer by Margaret Thatcher in 1980 and is well for her witty and no-nonsense character.
Lady Trumpington – Britain’s oldest female peer – has today announced to the Lords that she will retire from the Chamber next month, the day after her 95th birthday.
During her 37 years in Parliament’s upper chamber Lady Trumpington has become well known for her colourful behaviour and formidable
She hit the headlines when in 2011 she gave the two-fingered salute to a fellow peer when he suggested that she was old during a Parliamentary debate.
Baroness Trumpington (pictured in February) – whose colourful language and no-nonsense approach has won her the affectionate nickname Baroness Battleaxe – is retiring next month after 37 years in the House of Lords
Baroness Trumpington flashed the V-sign at her colleague Lord King of Bridgewater in the House of Lords after he mentioned her age in a parliamentary debate
The formidable peer was left deeply unimpressed when Lord King gestured towards her and said ‘the survivors of World War II started to look pretty old as well. As my noble friend, the Baroness, reminds me.’
She looked up from her notes, glared at her youngster colleague and flicked the V-sign at him before returning to study her notes.
The shock episode was caught on the parliamentary cameras and became a viral hit online.
In an age where many complain that politicians are too bland and focused on PR , the Conservative peer has embraced her colourful reputation.
In 2012 the chain-smoking peer appeared on the BBC’s flagship satirical show Have I Got News For You – becoming the show’s oldest ever guest – and revealed that she enjoys a cigar after sex.
And she has appeared on a string of other TV shows including the Great British Menu and a television documentary Fabulous Fashionistas, about older women and fashion.
Born in 1922 to an Army major and an American heiress, she grew up in the glitzy London scene which included the then Prince of Wales and his lover Wallis Simpson.
Her mother’s fortune was lost in the 1929 Wall Street crash, but she still mingled in upper class circles.
Lady Trumpington once said: ‘We used to say my mother’s idea of being poor was going to the Ritz on the bus.’
During the Second World War she worked as a Land Girl on Lloyd George’s estate, and has recalled how the former Prime Minister tried to take her measurements ‘everywhere’.
She told the Daily Mail in an interview in 2013: ‘He used to like to measure me. He’d stand me up against the wall and would measure me, with a tape measure.’
She added: ‘It was never explained why, but he was my boss and the grandfather of all my buddies, so I’d never dare ask. Anyway it was a long time ago.’
A talented linguist fluent in French and German, she later joined the top secret team at Bletchley Park who cracked Hitler’s code – helping to win the Second World War.
She spent weekends partying with her society friends like the newspaper magnate and minister Lord Beaverbook, and dancing at the most fashionable West End clubs.
After the war she moved to New York where she worked as a secretary at one of the famous Manhattan advertising agencies.
In America she met her future husband Alan Barker and the pair got married and settled in Cambridge, where thus had their son Adam.
Baroness Trumpington made Ian Hislop shrink back in embarrassment when she joked about enjoying a cigar after sex in an appearance of Have I Got News For You
She became a councillor in the town in the 1960s becoming the city’s mayor in 1971.
After years on local government she was made a peer by Baroness Thatcher in 1980 – with whom she maintained a close friendship .
In the Lords she won a reputation for colourful anecdotes and a no-nonsense character.
During a debate on equality, she sent peers into fits of laughter by revealing that booking into a hotel used to give a ‘certain frisson’ as her late husband had to use a different name.
When she was a guest on Desert Island Discs, she chose the Crown jewels as her luxury item, in order to maximise her chances of being rescued.
She threw a party to celebrate her 90th birthday, but bought so much champagne she ended up going home with five cases of the stuff which had not been drunk by her guests.
‘But perhaps I should save them for my 100th’ she told the Daily Mail.