Jean Barker, Baroness Trumpington

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Jean Alys Barker, Baroness Trumpington, DCVO, PC (born October 23, 1922) is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Born Jean Alys Campbell-Harris to Major Arthur Campbell-Harris and Doris Robson, she was educated privately. During World War II, she worked in Naval intelligence at Bletchley Park. She married William Alan Barker (usually referred to as "Alan") in 1954 and had one son; she was widowed in 1988. She served on various public bodies, including as chair of the Airline Users Committee 1979-80. She was Mayor of Cambridge 1971 to 1972.

Barker was made a life peer as Baroness Trumpington, of Sandwich in the County of Kent, in 1980. She was a Baroness-in-waiting from 1983 to 1985, and again from 1992 to 1997. She was a Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1989 to 1992, which, at age 69, made her the oldest woman minister ever. She was made a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 2005.

When she was a guest on Desert Island Discs, she chose as her luxury item the Crown jewels, in order to maximise her chances of being rescued.^[1]

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