Nancy Seear, Baroness Seear

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Beatrice Nancy Seear, Baroness Seear

Privy Counsellor
in 1985.

Career

Born in

Ministry of Aircraft Production, a post she held from 1943 to 1945.[1]

In 1946, she became a teacher of, and reader in, Personnel Management at the London School of Economics, where she would remain until 1978.[1]

As a member of the Liberal Party, Seear contested every UK general election from 1950 to 1970, coming third behind the Conservative and Labour candidates on each occasion.[1] She initially stood for Hornchurch in 1950 and 1951, before attempting Truro in 1955 and 1959. In 1964, she stood for Epping, and tried constituencies in northern England at the following two general elections – Rochdale, in 1966, and Wakefield in 1970. The latter would be her last candidature at a general election, although she stood as the Liberal candidate for Wight and Hampshire East in the 1979 European Parliament election, coming second to the Conservative candidate.[2]

Seear was

Life Peer on 18 May 1971 as Baroness Seear, of Paddington in the City of Westminster.[3]

Following her elevation to the

Institute of Personnel Management
, a role she held from 1977 to 1979.

In 1980, she became visiting professor of Personnel Management at

City University, London, continuing until 1987. Meanwhile, Seear was Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords from 1984 to 1988 – the year in which the Liberals merged with the Social Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democrats. Seear duly became Deputy Leader of the new Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, holding this office from 1988 to 1997. From 1991 to 1997, she was also Honorary President of the National Postgraduate Committee
.

Carers champion

Baroness Seear was also remembered as a pioneer for

carers and women's rights. In 1963, as a Reader in Personnel Management at the LSE, she was approached by the Rev. Mary Webster, who had given up her work as a Minister to care for her aged parents, and hit the UK headlines with her highly effective campaigning work. Seear said that within five minutes of meeting Mary Webster, "I knew that she was someone quite exceptional".[4]

Seear became one of twelve founder members of the NCSWD – the National Council for Single Woman and Her Dependants – on 15 December 1965; another prominent member was

Carers National Association
, when it was formed by a merger with the Association of Carers on 14 May 1988.

Personal life

Seear was a Christian.[1] She was unmarried, and stated herself to be a republican. She died from cancer in London on 23 April 1997, aged 83.[1]

Archives

Publications

  • A career for women in industry (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1964);
  • Policies for incomes (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1967);
  • Training: the fulcrum of change (British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education, London, 1976);
  • Interdependence and survival: population policies and environmental control (Wyndham Place Trust, London, 1976);
  • Women in the penal system (Report for the Howard League for Penal Reform, 1986);
  • Education: a quantum leap? (Hebden Royd Publications, Hebden Bridge, 1988).

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/66014. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ Boothroyd, David (21 August 2020). "United Kingdom European Parliamentary Election results 1979-99: England 2". Election Demon. Archived from the original on 21 August 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  3. ^ "No. 45373". The London Gazette. 20 May 1971. p. 5239.
  4. ^ Tim Cook, 2007

External links
Party political offices
Preceded by
President of the Liberal Party

1965–1966 		Succeeded by
The Lord Eden
Preceded by President of the Women's Liberal Federation
1974–1977 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords

1984–1988 		Succeeded by
Social and Liberal Democrats
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