Diana Louie Elles, Baroness Elles (19 July 1921 – 17 October 2009)[1] was a barrister and United Nations representative from the United Kingdom. She was a delegate to the European Parliament for over a decade.
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Born Diana Newcombe in Bedford, she was the daughter of Colonel Stewart Francis Newcombe and his wife Elisabeth Chaki, who had met in his war captivity.[2] Her father was a close friend of T.E.Lawrence[2], who was the godfather of her brother Stuart Lawrence Newcombe (born 1920).[3] After education at private schools in London, Paris and Florence, she went to the University of London, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Italian in 1941.[2] During the Second World War Elles served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, becoming a Flight Officer in 1944.[2] Versed in mathematics she was attached to Bletchley Park and was part of a team of code-breakers.[4]
Elles was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1956 and worked in the voluntary care committee in Kennington.[2] She was director of the National Institute of Houseworkers, opening an training college in 1963.[2] In July 1970, Elles became chairman of the British section of the European Union of Women and three years later of the organisation as a whole.[2] In 1972, Edward Heath, at that time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom arranged for her a life peerage[4] and on 2 May she was created Baroness Elles, of the City of Westminster.[5] When Labour took office in 1974, she sat on the Opposition benches in the House of Lords and acted as Spokesperson for foreign and European affairs.[6]
In 1977 Elles became a council member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs until 1986 and subsequently was governor of the University of Reading until 1996.[6] She was trustee of the Industry and Parliament Trust from 1985 and in 1990 a trustee of the Caldecott Community that was originally founded as a London nursery in 1911 - latterly a residential (therapeutic) community for children in care.[6] Elles was appointed an honorable bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1993.[7] After her retirement from politician, she spent her time supporting the British Institute of Florence.[4]
In 1972, Elles joined the British delegation to the United Nations General Assembly and after a year was added to the UN Sub-Commission for Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.[8] She was nominated UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in 1975.[8] Four years later, she resigned her offices with the UN.[8]
Edward Heath sent her to the European Parliament in 1973, where she headed the international office until 1978, when Elles had to make room for a Labour delegate.[2] In the Parliament's first election in 1979, she won the Conservative seat for Thames Valley.[9] Together with her son James, she was returned in 1984 for another five years.[2] From 1982, she served as the Parliament's vice-president and two years later, stood unsuccessfully for the presidency.[9] When in 1987, her term ended, she ran for the leadership of the European Democratic Group, however was defeated by Christopher Prout.[2] Elles left the Parliament in 1989 and became a member of the Belgian law firm Van Bael and Bellis.[2]
In 1945, she married Neil Patrick Moncrieff Elles; they had two children, Elizabeth Rosamund (born 1947) and James Edmund Moncrieff (born 1949).[10] Her husband having predeceased her, Elles died on 17 October 2009, aged 88.[4]
| European Parliament | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of the European Parliament for Thames Valley 1979 – 1989 |
Succeeded by John Stevens |