Jean Denton, Baroness Denton of Wakefield

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Life Peerage
Personal details
Born(1935-12-29)29 December 1935
Wakefield, England
Died5 February 2001(2001-02-05) (aged 65)
London, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Tony Denton
​
​
(m. 1959; div. 1974)​
Alma materLondon School of Economics

Jean Denton, Baroness Denton of Wakefield, CBE (29 December 1935 – 5 February 2001) was a British businesswoman, racing driver and Conservative Party politician.

Background

Jean Moss was born in Wakefield on 1935, the daughter of Charles and Kathleen Moss (born Tuke).[1][2] Her father worked at a hospital and her mother was a school cook. When she was 8 she represented Yorkshire in a child's version of the radio programme Round Britain Quiz.[3] Moss attended Rothwell Grammar School near Leeds.[2] When she was fourteen she had to take bed rest for a year to cure a kidney infection, despite this she won a scholarship as head girl to attend the London School of Economics. She gained a BSc in Economics in 1958.[1] Having earned her Economics degree she joined the marketing department of the consumer company Procter & Gamble.[3]

Career

From 1961 to 1964 she was in the marketing department of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) which was part of

IPC Media and until 1969 she led the Hotel and Catering Department of the University of Surrey. In her spare time she won the 1967 and 1968 title of Britain's Woman Racing Champion.[3]

In 1969 she gave up work in marketing and management and devoted her time to driving. She took part and was the only woman to complete in a sports car the

London-Sydney Marathon. The following year she was sponsored by Woman magazine to drive an Austin Maxi in the World Cup rally through Europe and South America.[3]

She combined her interests and skills and took work as a senior manager in the British automotive industry. She was Marketing Director for the Hampstead Huxford Garage Group from 1972 and in 1978 she moved to the

Burson-Marsteller.[1]

In 1991 she was appointed a

Baroness-in-Waiting from 1991–2. She was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry from 1992–3, at the Department of Energy from 1993–4, and at the Northern Ireland Office from 1994–7. After the 1997 general election, she served as the Conservative opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry in the House of Lords.[1]

She was co-founder of Forum UK, the British section of the International Forum for Women and President (President) of the organization Women on the Move against Cancer.[2]

Personal life and death

In 1959, Jean Moss married Tony Denton, an engineer; they divorced in 1974.[1]

Denton was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989, which was treated at the time with a lumpectomy.[1] In 1998, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour, and she died at a care home in London on 5 February 2001, at the age of 65.[1][2]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/75414. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ a b c d Lady Denton of Wakefield, Obituary, The Guardian, Retrieved 26 November 2015
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Lady Denton of Wakefield". The Daily Telegraph. 7 February 2001. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  4. ^ "No. 52560". The London Gazette. 14 June 1991. p. 9185.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jean_Denton,_Baroness_Denton_of_Wakefield&oldid=1217966991"