Judith Chaplin

Chaplin was elected a councillor on Norfolk County Council in 1975, following her husband into the role; on the council she became chairman of the education committee. She took on a role in 1986 with the Institute of Directors, becoming head of policy for the group. In 1988 she became special advisor to Nigel Lawson, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and remained in the role when John Major took over the following year.[2] When Major became Prime Minister, she acted as his Private Secretary and political assistant.[3]

She was elected to Parliament for Newbury at the 1992 election.[1] That June she was appointed OBE, and she was considered likely to become chancellor of the exchequer herself in the future; however, these hopes were ended less than a year later by her sudden death.[2]

Sybil Judith Schofield was born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, on 19 August 1939. Her father, Theodore Thomas Schofield, was a dentist; her mother was Sybil Elsie, née Saunders. She was educated at Wycombe Abbey before studying economics at Girton College, Cambridge. She went on to gain a post-graduate economics degree from the University of East Anglia.[2]

She married Robert Walpole, 10th Baron Walpole, in 1962. They had two sons and two daughters, including Alice Walpole, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Luxembourg. However, their marriage was ultimately dissolved in 1979, and she married Michael Chaplin in 1984.[1]

Judith Chaplin died of a pulmonary embolism on 19 February 1993.[2]

• List of United Kingdom MPs with the shortest service
• 1993 Newbury by-election