Shireen Olive Ritchie, Baroness Ritchie of Brompton ( Folkard; 22 June 1945 – 24 April 2012) was a Conservative Councillor for the Brompton Ward, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and advocate for women in the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

of the United Kingdom. She was a Conservative

working peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

and President of the

National Children's Bureau The National Children’s Bureau works collaboratively across the issues affecting children to influence policy and get services working together to deliver a better childhood. Established in 1963, they have been at the forefront of campaigning f ...

Politics

Shireen Ritchie was a Kensington and Chelsea Councillor from 1998 representing the Brompton ward on the council. In 2008, she provided testimony as part of the Home Affairs Committee hearings on Trade in Human Beings. She was involved in efforts of the Conservative Party to raise awareness among constituents about the importance of the issue of diversity to the party, including the party's Women2Win efforts in 2005, and Priority List (A-List) candidates, for which she received scorn from other Conservative party members. She held a seat as the Chair of the party's Candidates Committee and was named as a 'Champion' for the

Conservative Women's Organisation The Conservative Women's Organisation (CWO) represents the female members of the Conservative Party in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The Scottish Conservative Women's Council is the autonomous sister organisation of the CWO in Scotla ...

. While she was chair of LGA's Family and Children's Services in 2010, the department underwent an effort to reduce paperwork to "ease the pressure on social workers and increase the quality of care offered to children." She was a member of the Family Justice Review Panel. On 25 June 2010, she was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baroness Ritchie of Brompton, of Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and she was introduced in the

on 29 June 2010.

Family

Born Shireen Olive Folkard, she spent her early life in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

where her father was a British diplomat. After attending St Mary's Gate School,

Southbourne, Dorset Southbourne is a suburb of Bournemouth in Dorset, England. It is situated between Boscombe and Christchurch, in the unitary authority of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. The area was previously known as Stourfield. Strictly, Southbourne refers ...

, she worked as a fashion model until her marriage. She had a son by her first marriage to John Williams. Her second marriage was to the advertising executive John Vivian Ritchie, becoming stepmother to his children Tabitha Ritchie and

Guy Ritchie Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter. His work includes British gangster films, and the ''Sherlock Holmes'' films starring Robert Downey Jr. Ritchie left school at age 15 and wor ...

Politics

Family

References

Further reading