Barbara Abney-Hastings, 13th Countess of Loudoun

Barbara Huddleston Abney-Hastings, 13th Countess of Loudoun (3 July 1919 – 1 November 2002),^[1][2] was a Scottish countess in her own right, and a member of the House of Lords.

Lady Loudoun was the oldest daughter of Reginald Mowbray Chichester Huddleston and Edith Abney-Hastings, 12th Countess of Loudoun. Her only brother, Ian Huddleston Abney-Hastings, styled Lord Mauchline (1918–1944), was killed in Italy in World War II, so as the oldest sister Barbara succeeded in the earldom in 1960.

Lady Loudoun was a member of the House of Lords until 1999 when the right of hereditary peers to sit in the Lords was abolished. She sat as a cross-bencher, and was concerned with social justice. She lived in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England.

Ancestry

On her mother's side, she was descended from and heir-general of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence. Her other notable ancestors include Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Lady Mary Boleyn, King James IV of Scotland, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby. She was also descended from ancient Scottish nobility.

Marriages and children

Lady Loudoun married three times:

• She married firstly Captain Walter Strickland Lord in 1939. They had one child:

1. Michael Abney-Hastings, 14th Earl of Loudoun (1942–2012).

• She married secondly Captain Gilbert Frederick Greenwood in 1945. They had two children:

1. Lady Selina Mary Greenwood (b. 1946).
2. Hon. Frederick James Greenwood (b. 1949).

• She married thirdly Peter Griffiths in 1954. They had three children:

1. Lady Margaret Maud Abney-Hastings (b. 1956).
2. Lady Mary Joy Abney-Hastings (b. 1957).
3. Lady Clare Louise Abney-Hastings (b. 1958).

On her death she was succeeded by her oldest son.

References