Seear , Beatrice Nancy , 1913-1997 , Baroness Seear of Paddington , social scientist and politician

Born 1913; educated Croyden High School, Newnham College at Cambridge University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science; Personnel Officer, C & J Clark Ltd, 1936-1946; seconded as part-time member of staff, Production Efficiency Board, Ministry of Aircraft Production, 1943-1945; Teacher of, and Reader in, Personnel Management, LSE, 1946-1978; contested Hornchurch, 1950 and 1951, Truro, 1955 and 1959, Epping, 1964, Rochdale, 1966, and Wakefield, 1970, as a Liberal; President, Liberal Party, 1964-1965; President, Fawcett Society, 1970-1985; Top Salaries Review Board, 1971-1984; created Life Peer, 1971; Member of Council, Industrial Society, 1972-1984; President, British Standards Institute, 1974-1977; President, Women's Liberal Federation, 1974; Hansard Social Commission on Electoral Reform, 1975-1976; President, Institute of Personnel Management, 1977-1979; Visiting Professor of Personnel Management, City University, 1980-1987; Leader of the Liberal Party, House of Lords, 1984-1988; Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, House of Lords, 1988-1997; died 1997. Publications: Women in the penal system (Report for the Howard League for Penal Reform, 1986); 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); A career for women in industry (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1964); Policies for incomes (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1967); Education: a quantum leap? (Hebden Royd Publications, Hebden Bridge, 1988).