Elizabeth Smith, Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill

British Baroness (born 1940)

The Right Honourable The Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill DL
Official portrait, 2018

Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 February 1995 Life Peerage

Personal details
Born	(1940-06-04) 4 June 1940 (age 83)
Nationality	British
Spouse	John Smith (m. 1967; died 1994)
Children	3, including Sarah Smith
Alma mater	Glasgow University

Elizabeth Margaret Smith, Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill, DL (born 4 June 1940), is a British peer and patron of the arts. She is the widow of John Smith, the former Labour Party leader.

Born Elizabeth Margaret Bennett, Smith was educated at Hutchesons' Girls Grammar School and Glasgow University.^[1]

Baroness Smith is president of Scottish Opera and served as chairman of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 1995 to 2012.^[2] She is also a governor of the English-Speaking Union and a board member of the Centre for European Reform. Within a year of her husband's death, she was created a life peer as Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill, of Gilmorehill in the District of the City of Glasgow on 17 February 1995.^[3] From 1998 to 2001, she served as president of Birkbeck College, University of London.^[1] In 2002, she was elected a fellow of Birkbeck, one of the college's highest honours.^[1]

Smith received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1998.^[4]

She has three daughters, including Sarah Smith who is the BBC News North America Editor.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Baroness Elizabeth Smith of Gilmorehill". Birkbeck.
^ "The Scotsman".
^ "No. 53963". The London Gazette. 22 February 1995. p. 2512.
^ "Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates". www1.hw.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2016.