Barbara Freyberg, Baroness Freyberg

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Barbara Freyberg, Baroness Freyberg GBE (d. 24 September 1973) was a British peeress.

Born Barbara Jekyll, she was a daughter of Col. Sir Herbert Jekyll. On 20 July 1911, she married Hon. Francis McLaren (Liberal MP for Spalding, the second son of the 1st Baron Aberconway) and they had two sons, Martin John McLaren (1914–1979) and Guy Lewis Ian McLaren (1915 – 1978). Barbara's husband was killed in action in 1917 and on 14 June 1922, she married Bernard Freyberg (later Baron Freyberg) at St. Martha-on-the-Hill, near Guildford, Surrey. They later had an only son, Paul a year later.

During World War II, Barbara was a welfare worker in Cairo, was mentioned in despatches and awarded an OBE in 1943. When her husband's term as Governor-General of New Zealand ended in 1952, Lady Freyberg was awarded the GBE a year later.

[edit] Sources

• Burke's Peerage & Gentry