Mary Elizabeth Lalage Wakefield (born 12 April 1975) is a British

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, and a

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

and

commissioning editor In book publishing, a commissioning editor is essentially a buyer. It is the job of the commissioning editor to advise the publishing house on which books to publish. Usually the actual decision of whether to contract a book is taken by a senior ma ...

for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

''.

Early life

Wakefield is the daughter of the antique and architectural expert Sir Humphry Wakefield, 2nd Baronet and Hon. Katherine Mary Alice, daughter of

Evelyn Baring, 1st Baron Howick of Glendale Evelyn may refer to: Places * Evelyn, London *Evelyn Gardens, a garden square in London * Evelyn, Ontario, Canada * Evelyn, Michigan, United States * Evelyn, Texas, United States * Evelyn, Wirt County, West Virginia, United States * Evelyn ...

, a colonial administrator in Africa. She has two brothers; Maximilian Wakefield (born 1967), an entrepreneur and racing car driver, and Jack Wakefield (born 1977), former director of the Firtash Foundation and an art critic who writes for ''The Spectator'' and other publications. A third brother, William Wakefield, was born in 1975 and died in infancy. Wakefield was educated at the independent girls' boarding school

Wycombe Abbey Wycombe Abbey is an independent girls' boarding and day school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls schools in academic results. The school was founded in 1896 by Dame Frances Dove (1847 ...

and at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

( MA).

Family provenance

Through her mother, she is descended from

, the

Governor of Kenya This article contains a list of chairmen, administrators, commissioners and governors of British Kenya Colony. The office of Governor of Kenya was replaced by the office of Governor General in 1963 and then later replaced by a President of Kenya ...

during the

Mau Mau uprising The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the ''Mau Mau'', an ...

, and

Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl Grey, (28 November 185129 August 1917) was a British peer and politician who served as Governor General of Canada 1904–1911, the ninth since Canadian Confederation. He was a radical Liberal aristocrat and a ...

, a

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...

, and through the latter,

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (13 March 1764 – 17 July 1845), known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was a British Whig politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. He was a member of the nob ...

, of the

House of Grey The House of Grey is an ancient English noble family from Creully in Normandy. The founder of the House of Grey was Anchetil de Greye, a Norman chevalier and vassal of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, one of the few proven companions of W ...

, a former

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, after whom

Earl Grey tea Earl Grey tea is a tea blend which has been flavoured with oil of bergamot. The rind's fragrant oil is added to black tea to give Earl Grey its unique taste. Traditionally, Earl Grey was made from black teas such as Chinese keemun, and therefo ...

is named.

Career

Wakefield has worked at the weekly magazine ''

'' for twenty years, since

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

was editor, and was commissioning editor in 2017, assistant editor from 2001 and then deputy editor. She also writes for the magazine as a columnist, and has written for '' The Sun'', ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'', ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''. In 2015, following an online petition, Wakefield apologised and amended an article she had written for ''The Spectator'' in which she described an 18-year-old who had recently died in a moped crash as a "thuggish white lad". Her father's

Chillingham Castle Chillingham Castle is a medieval castle in the village of Chillingham in the northern part of Northumberland, England. It was the seat of the Grey and Bennett (later Earls of Tankerville) families from the 15th century until the 1980s, when it b ...

website refers to her as "Daughter Mary, a musician and painter, hois also Assistant Editor of The Spectator". She has in her work been highly critical of what she refers to as "the carnage caused by the trans madness".

Personal life

In December 2011, Wakefield married

Dominic Cummings Dominic Mckenzie Cummings (born 25 November 1971) is a British political strategist who served as Chief Adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 24 July 2019 until Cummings resigned on 13 November 2020. From 2007 to 2014, he was a ...

, a friend of her brother Jack Wakefield. In 2016, they had a son, (Alexander) Cedd, named after an Anglo-Saxon saint. She is a convert to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, (starts at 1h 48min) having been raised in the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

tradition. Wakefield was portrayed by Liz White in the 2019

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

drama '' Brexit: The Uncivil War''. Wakefield is

second cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...

once removed to

Alexander Armstrong Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter and singer. He is the host of the BBC One game show ''Pointless'', as well as the morning show on Classic FM. He is ...

; they share a direct ancestor in the person of colonial administrator Sir John Perronet Thompson.

COVID-19

On 25 April, Wakefield wrote an article for ''

'' about her experience when both she and Cummings contracted

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 22 May it was reported that Wakefield and Cummings had driven over 260 miles (c. 420 km) each way between London and

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

in late March to stay in a cottage at her father-in-law's farm, while both, reportedly, were exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, although Cummings states that his symptoms appeared the day after the journey was made. An eyewitness saw Wakefield on 12 April walking in

Barnard Castle Barnard Castle (, ) is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, Northern England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum's has an 18th-century Silver Swan automato ...

in the company of Cummings and their son, after a complaint to the

Durham Constabulary Durham Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing ceremonial county of County Durham in North East England. The force’s area is bordered by Cumbria Constabulary to the west, Cleveland Police to the south east, North ...

by another witness who claimed to have seen Cummings with a group of people in the same town. Cummings admitted that he made the 52-mile round trip with his wife and child to see whether he could drive safely, saying, "My wife was very worried, particularly given my eyesight seemed to have been affected by the disease. She did not want to risk a nearly 300-mile drive with our child ack to London given how ill I had been." Following an investigation into these reports, Durham Constabulary stated that, whereas the trip to Barnard Castle might have been a minor breach of the lockdown regulations, the trip to Durham itself was not. Durham Constabulary stated they would take no further action in the matter. Alleged inconsistencies between Cummings's account and his wife's have been discussed in the press, and reported to the

Independent Press Standards Organisation The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) is the regulator of the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK. It was established on 8 September 2014 after the windup of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), which had been the main ind ...

, the magazine's regulator.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wakefield, Mary Living people 1975 births People educated at Wycombe Abbey Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 20th-century British journalists 21st-century British journalists Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism British columnists Daughters of baronets