Elspeth Campbell

Elspeth Mary, Lady Campbell (born January 1940) is the wife of the former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell.

Elspeth Urquhart was born in New Delhi, India, one of four children of Major-General Roy Urquhart and his wife Pamela. She lived in Devon with her great grandmother and, after the Second World War she accompanied the family to Kuala Lumpur when her father was posted to British Malaya during the Malayan Emergency. This was followed by two years in Austria before she was sent to a convent school in Devon. There she proved to be an able student, earning A levels sufficient to admit her to Oxford, but her father vetoed this idea and she was instead sent to a finishing school. She later worked at the Conservative Party's London offices.

On 13 October 1962, Urquhart married Canadian-born Sir Philip Grant-Suttie, 8th Baronet. They had one son, and divorced in 1969. It was during this divorce that she was introduced to Menzies Campbell by her barrister, future Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Nicholas Fairbairn. She married Campbell in 1970.

Lady Campbell is known for her strong personality, and is believed to have persuaded her husband to stand in the 2006 Liberal Democrat leadership election, in which he was eventually victorious. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4738646.stm Profile: Lady Campbell] , BBC News, 2 March 2006]

Lady Campbell is famous for hosting grand dinner parties, and for never being seen without a cigarette.Fact|date=August 2007 She is also a fan of Coronation Street and wrote a thesis on the series for an Open University degree. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/newspapers/sunday_times/scotland/article788004.ece]

Titles from birth

* Miss Elspeth Urquhart (1940–1962)
* Lady Grant-Suttie (1962–1969)
* Elspeth, Lady Grant-Suttie (1969–1970)
* Mrs Menzies Campbell (1970–2004)
* Lady Campbell (2004– )

Notes

References

* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1983824,00.html Where there's smoke, there's Elspeth] , "The Sunday Times", 15 January 2006
* [http://www.scottishfield.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/255/Treat_Her_Like_a_Lady.html Treat her like a lady] , "Scottish Field", 16 August 2004