Barbara Huddleston Abney-Hastings, 13th Countess of Loudoun (3 July 19191 November 2002), was a Scottish countess in her own right, and a member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

. Lady Loudoun was the oldest daughter of Reginald Mowbray Chichester Huddleston and

Edith Abney-Hastings, 12th Countess of Loudoun } Edith Maud Abney-Hastings, 12th Countess of Loudoun (13 May 1883 – 24 February 1960) was a British peeress. Family She was the first daughter and coheir of Hon. Paulyn Abney-Hastings (the second son of Charles Abney-Hastings, 1st Baron D ...

. Her father took her mother's last name. Her only brother, Ian Huddleston Abney-Hastings, styled Lord Mauchline (1918–1944), was killed in Italy in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, so as the eldest sister, Barbara succeeded to the earldom in 1960. Lady Loudoun was a member of the

until 1999, when the right of hereditary peers to sit in the Lords was abolished. She sat as a

cross-bencher A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

, and was concerned with

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals ...

. She lived in

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Ashby-de-la-Zouch, sometimes spelt Ashby de la Zouch () and shortened locally to Ashby, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The town is near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshir ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire ...

Ancestry

On her mother's side, she was descended from and heir-general of

George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (21 October 144918 February 1478), was the 6th son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of English kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in the ...

. Her other notable ancestors include

Mary Tudor, Queen of France Mary Tudor (; 18 March 1496 – 25 June 1533) was an English princess who was briefly Queen of France as the third wife of King Louis XII. Louis was more than 30 years her senior. Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth ...

;

King James IV of Scotland James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchi ...

;

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1 ...

; and Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby.

Marriages and children

Lady Loudoun married three times. She married, firstly, Captain Walter Strickland Lord on 5 September 1939. They had one child: * Michael Abney-Hastings, 14th Earl of Loudoun (1942–2012) Her second marriage was on 21 November 1945 to Captain Gilbert Frederick Greenwood. They had two children: * Lady Selina Mary Abney-Hastings (b. 1946) * Hon. Frederick James Abney-Hastings (b. 1949) Her third and final marriage was to Peter Griffiths on 15 September 1954. They had three children: * Lady Margaret Maud Abney-Hastings (b. 1956) * Lady Mary Joy Abney-Hastings (b. 1957) * Lady Clare Louise Abney-Hastings (b. 1958) On her death, she was succeeded by her oldest son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loudoun, Barbara Abney-Hastings, 13th Countess of 1919 births 2002 deaths Earls of Loudoun Hereditary women peers Scottish countesses People from Ashby-de-la-Zouch Place of birth missing Place of death missing 20th-century British women politicians 20th-century Scottish politicians 20th-century Scottish women

Loudoun Loudoun ( gd, Lughdan) is a parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland and lies between five and ten miles east of Kilmarnock. The parish roughly encompasses the northern half of the Upper-Irvine Valley and borders Galston Parish (which encompasses the ...