Caroline, Countess of Cranbrook

Caroline Gathorne-Hardy, Countess of Cranbrook OBE (née Jarvis; 18 December 1935) is an English aristocrat and campaigner on food quality issues. She is the wife of Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 5th Earl of Cranbrook.

She was born in London in 1935,[1][2] the daughter of Colonel Ralph George Edward Jarvis of Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire and his wife, Antonia Mary Hilda Meade.[3] Both of her parents were in MI6, and she moved to Portugal as a girl.[1]

She married the Earl of Cranbrook on 9 May 1967, and took up the married name Caroline Gathorne-Hardy. Their early home was in a jungle area of Malaya, where her husband worked as a zoologist.[2] After three years, they took up residence at his family seat, Great Glemham House, Great Glemham, Saxmundham, Suffolk.[2] She ran the estate farm and raised their three children.[2] When her husband inherited the earldom of Cranbrook from his father, on 22 November 1978, she became a Countess.[2]

She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2004, for services to the red meat industry, after campaigning to save local abattoirs.[2][4] She is president of the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival.[2]

Lady Cranbrook appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 31 May 2009,[1] and received The Oldie's 'Campaigner of the Year' Award in 2010.[2] The then Prince of Wales called her "the doughtiest fighter for good sense in agriculture".[2]

She and her husband have three children:[3]

• John Jason Gathorne-Hardy, Lord Medway (born 26 October 1968), heir apparent to the Earldom, born in Kuala Lumpur
• Dr. Lady Flora Gathorne-Hardy (born 10 October 1971)
• Hon. Argus Edward Gathorne-Hardy (born 28 May 1973)