Violet Bonham Carter

Rth Hon. Lady Violet Bonham Carter, later created Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury (April 15 1887- February 19 1969) was a British poltician and the daughter of Liberal Prime Minister H.H. Asquith by his first wife, Helen.

Early Life

She grew up in a heavily political environment, living in Downing Street at the time her father occupied it, and socialised with the key political figures of her day. Her mother died of typhoid fever when Violet was four, and relations with her stepmother, Margot Asquith, were always tense. As the Liberal Party fell on hard times in the 1920s, she became a tireless defender of her father and his reputation, beginning by campaigning for him at the 1920 Paisley By-Election. She was particularly close to Winston Churchill, then a leading light in the Liberals, and formed a lifelong friendship with him.

Family

Violet Bonham Carter's family was strongly intertwined with the Liberal Party. As well as having an illustrious father, she married a prominent Liberal MP, Maurice Bonham Carter, in 1915. They had four children together, including Mark Bonham Carter (himself later a Liberal MP) and Laura Bonham Carter (who married the Liberal leader Jo Grimond). She is the grandmother of the actress Helena Bonham Carter.

Political Career

Lady Violet lived in an age when women were uncommon in frontline British politics. She was nonetheless active as President of the Women's Liberal Federation 1923-5, and 1939-45, and was President of the Liberal Party 1945-7. In the 1945 General Election she stood for Wells, coming third, while in 1951 she stood for the winnable seat of Colne Valley. As an old friend, Churchill arranged for the Conservatives to not put up a candidate, giving her a clear run against Labour. She was nonetheless narrowly defeated. She continued to be a popular and charismatic speaker for Liberal candidates, including for her son-in-law Jo Grimond, her son Mark, and the then-rising star Jeremy Thorpe, and she was a frequent broadcaster on current affairs programmes on radio and television.

In the non-political sphere, she was also active in the arts, being a Governor of the BBC 1941-6, and a Governor of the Old Vic 1945-69.

In 1965, she was created Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury, one of the first new Liberal peers in several decades. (Her own previous title, 'Lady Violet,' had been accorded to her after her husband was knighted in 1920, and from 1925 she was also entitled to it as a courtesy title from her father's elevation to the peerage as 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith.) She continued to be extremely active in the Lords despite being increasingly onset by illness in her last few years.

She died of a heart attack at the age of 81.

Suggested Reading

• Winston Churchill as I Knew Him, Violet Bonham Carter (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1965), published in the USA as Winston Churchill - An Intimate Portrait
• Lantern Slides - The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1904-1914 ed. Mark Bonham Carter and Mark Pottle (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1996)
• Champion Redoubtable - The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1914-1945 ed. Mark Pottle (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1998)
• Daring to Hope - The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1945-1969 ed. Mark Pottle (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2000)