Margaret Heather Laird

Margaret Heather Laird, OBE (née Polmear; 29 January 1933 – 11 May 2014) was a British teacher and senior laywoman in the Church of England. From 1989 to 1999, she served as the Third Church Estates Commissioner, having been appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury; the Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England and the Third Church Estates Commissioner attends the Church's General Synod.

Margaret Laird

OBE
Born
Margaret Heather Polmear

29 January 1933
Truro, Cornwall, England
Died11 May 2014(2014-05-11) (aged 81)
NationalityBritish
EducationTruro High School
Alma materWestfield College, University of London
King's College London
OccupationTeacher
Known forThird Church Estates Commissioner, Church of England

Early life and education

Margaret Heather Polmear was born on 29 January 1933 in Truro, Cornwall.[1] As a child, her father attended the Anglo-Catholic Church of St Paul, Truro and her mother attended the local Methodist chapel.[2] Having attended both church and chapel, she was confirmed in the Church of England.[2]

She was educated at Truro High School, an all-girls private school in Truro, where she became head girl.[3] She studied medieval history at Westfield College, London, then an all-girls college of the University of London, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1954.[3][4][2] She undertook further studies at King's College London, completing a postgraduate certificate in religious knowledge in 1955.[4][2]

Career

Teaching

Laird's first career was in teaching.[3] She was divinity mistress at the Grey Coat Hospital, an all-girls state school in London, from 1955 to 1959.[4] She then taught at Newquay Grammar School, a co-education state grammar school in Newquay (1959 to 1960), and at St Albans High School, an all-girls private school in St Albans (1960 to 1962).[4] Having married in 1961, she took a break from teaching to "concentrated on motherhood".[1] She returned to her career, and her final teaching position was as head of religious studies at Dame Alice Harpur School, an all-girls independent school in Bedford, between 1969 and 1989.[4]

Church service

In 1980, Laird was elected to the General Synod of the Church of England as a representative from the Diocese of St Albans.[4][2] She continued to sit as a lay member from that diocese until she became an ex-officio member as a church commissioner from 1990.[4] In September 1988, she was selected by Robert Runcie, the then Archbishop of the Church of England, to be the next Third Church Estates Commissioner.[3][2] The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England, and the Third Commissioner is chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury. She served as Third Church Estates Commissioner for a decade, between 1989 and 1999.[4] As Commissioner, she was a member of the Standing Committee of the General Synod and of the Church of England's Pension Board during her time in office.[1][4]

In the 1999 New Year Honours, Laird was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services as a Church Commissioner.[5]

Active in traditionalist Anglo-Catholic circles, she was a vocal opposer of the ordination of women.[2] From 1993, she was the first female governor of Pusey House, Oxford; she was its vice-president from 2014.[4][2] She also served as vice-president of the Society for the Maintenance of the Faith from 1994 until her death, and was a trustee of the Oxford Movement Anniversary Appeal Trust between 1996 and 2010.[4] Through her husband, she also had links with Forward in Faith.[2]

Personal life

While studying at King's College, London, she met her future husband, John Laird.[1] He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1959,[6] and they married in 1961.[4] After parish ministry, her husband became chaplain and then principal of Bishops' College, Cheshunt, an Anglican theological college.[6] After the closure of Bishops' College, he became a vicar and then one of the only domestic chaplains to a private family, as chaplain to the Marquess of Salisbury.[6][7] Together, they had two sons:[3][4] Stephen is an Anglican priest and chaplain,[8] while Andrew is a classical scholar.[9]

Laird's beliefs fell within the Prayer Book Catholic tradition of the Church of England.[2]

Laird died on 11 May 2014, aged 81, following a terminal illness of two years. She was survived by her husband and sons.[3]

References
  1. "Obituary: MARGARET HEATHER LAIRD". Church Times. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  2. "Margaret Laird". New Directions. Forward in Faith (229). June 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  3. "Margaret Laird". The Times. 2 September 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  4. "Laird, Margaret Heather, (29 January 1933 – 11 May 2014), Third Church Estates Commissioner, 1989–99". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  5. "No. 55354". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1998. pp. 9–11.
  6. "John Charles Laird". Crockford's Clerical Directory (online ed.). Church House Publishing. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  7. Shamash, Jack (28 June 2014). "The last full time family chaplain robes up for the lord's prayer time". The Times. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  8. "Stephen Laird". St Augustine's College of Theology. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  9. "Andrew Laird: John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics and Humanities and Professor of Hispanic Studies". Brown University. 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
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