Pamela Sharples, Baroness Sharples (; 11 February 1923 – 19 May 2022) was a British

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

of the Conservative Party who was elevated to the

peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes Life peer, non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted Imperial, royal and noble ranks, noble ranks. Peerages include: A ...

in 1973 after the assassination of her husband, Sir

Richard Sharples Sir Richard Christopher Sharples, (6 August 1916 – 10 March 1973) was a British politician and Governor of Bermuda who was shot dead by assassins linked to a small militant Bermudian Black Power group called the Black Beret Cadre. The former ...

Governor of Bermuda The governor of Bermuda (officially Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Somers Isles (alias the Islands of Bermuda)) is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Bermuda. For the purposes of this arti ...

Early life and education

She was the daughter of Lt.-Cdr. Keith William Newall and wife Violet Ruby Ashton (who later married Lord Claud Hamilton, son of the 2nd Duke of Abercorn). She was educated at Southover Manor School in

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

,'Sharples, Baroness', in ''Who's Who 2009'' (London: A. & C. Black, 2008). and during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, from 1941 to 1946, she served in the

Women's Auxiliary Air Force The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), whose members were referred to as WAAFs (), was the female auxiliary of the British Royal Air Force during the World War II, Second World War. Established in 1939, WAAF numbers exceeded 181,000 at its peak ...

.The Peerage, Lady Pamela Newall, Baroness Sharples
Retrieved 24 May 2022.

Family

She was married three times. In 1946 she married Sir

, who was assassinated in 1973 while serving as

. They had two sons and two daughters. Her second husband, from 1977 until his death in 1980, was Patrick David de László (son of the painter

Philip de László Philip Alexius László de Lombos (born Fülöp Laub; ; 30 April 1869 – 22 November 1937), known professionally as Philip de László, was an Anglo-Hungarian painter known particularly for his portraits of royal and aristocratic personages. ...

), and her third husband, from 1983 until his death in 1995, was Robert Douglas Swan.

Political and business career

Sharples was created a

on 18 June 1973 following the assassination of her husband, becoming Baroness Sharples of

Chawton Chawton is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. The village lies within the South Downs National Park and is famous as the home of Jane Austen for the last eight years of her life. History Chawton's r ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. She sat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

as a member of the Conservative Party. In 1995 she became the sole owner of Nunswell Investments Limited, an

offshore investment Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one's country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are used to pay less tax in many countries by large and small-scale investors. Poorly regulated offshore domiciles have ser ...

company in

The Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

. In 2000 she became a director of Nunswell, which was registered in the United Kingdom the same year and, as of 2016, paid taxes to the

British government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

. In April 2016 she was named in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...

, leaked documents related to offshore banking. Her law firm wrote that the House of Lords "has been notified of Baroness Sharples' oversight in registering her interest as a Director of Nunswell Investments Limited" and that she receives "no remuneration ... nor any income or capital from that company". As of December 2015, her son was a director and shareholder of the company, "not on a personal basis". Sharples retired from the House of Lords on 18 December 2017. She died on 19 May 2022 at the age of 99.

Arms

Notes

1923 births 2022 deaths People from Chawton People educated at Southover Manor School Women's Auxiliary Air Force airwomen Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Life peers created by Elizabeth II Sharples Conservative Party (UK) life peers People named in the Panama Papers {{life-peer-stub Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014