Jean Alys Barker, Baroness Trumpington, DCVO, PC (born 23 October 1922) is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.
Born Jean Alys Campbell-Harris to Major Arthur Campbell-Harris and Doris Robson, she was educated privately. During World War II, she worked in naval intelligence at Bletchley Park.[1][2] She married William Alan Barker (usually referred to as "Alan") in 1954 and had one son; she was widowed in 1988. She served on various public bodies, including as chair of the Airline Users Committee 1979-80. She represented Trumpington on Cambridge City Council and was Mayor of Cambridge 1971 to 1972.
Barker was made a life peer as Baroness Trumpington, of Sandwich in the County of Kent, in 1980. She was a Baroness-in-waiting from 1983 to 1985, and again from 1992 to 1997. She was a Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1989 to 1992, which, at age 69, made her the oldest female minister ever. She was made a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 2005.
When she was a guest on Desert Island Discs in 1990, she chose as her luxury item the Crown Jewels, in order to maximise her chances of being rescued.[3]
In 2011 she responded to fellow Conservative lord Tom King's referring to her as an example of how old veterans of World War II were looking by raising two fingers to him.[4]