Two new Vice-Presidents for the Lloyd George Society
The Lloyd George Society welcomed two new Vice-Presidents to its ranks at last month’s weekend school in Llandrindod Wells, with the election of Baroness Joan Walmsley and Lady Shirley Hooson at the Society’s Annual General Meeting.
Lady Walmsley hails from Liverpool where she also went to University. After graduating in Biology she went to work in the health service and after a number of years out of the workplace bringing up her two children she trained as a teacher and taught in the secondary sector. She then went into public relations where she worked for Hill & Knowlton for nine years before setting up her own business. She married Martin Thomas (Lord Thomas of Gresford) in 2005, and now lives in North Wales.
It was in 1986 that she became politically active in the Liberal Party when her late husband Chris Walmsley was the candidate in the famous West Derbyshire by-election (held by the Tories by only 100 votes). She stood for Parliament in 1992 and 1997 and in the European elections of 1999. She is sometime Children, Schools and Families Spokesperson in the Lords. She has served on the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology and is the Vice-Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children.
Lady Shirley Hooson is the widow of former Liberal and Lib Dem MP and peer, Emlyn Hooson and is herself from an established Liberal family in Montgomeryshire, the Hamer family. Her father, Sir George Hamer CBE was a Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire, serving in local government and promiment in many spheres of public life. She married Emlyn Hooson in 1950. She currently serves on Llanidloes Town Council.
