Elspeth Campbell

Elspeth Mary Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Pittenweem (5 January 1940 – 5 June 2023) was a British baroness and socialite. She was married to the Liberal Democrat politician Menzies Campbell from 1970 until her death. Early life and education Elspeth Mary Urquhart was born on 5 January 1940 in New Delhi, British India, one of four children of Major (later Major-General) Roy Urquhart, who was portrayed by Sean Connery in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far, and his wife Pamela. When she was six months old, she and her mother embarked on a two-month journey to Britain, during which some of the ships in their convoy were torpedoed. She spent the rest of the Second World War with relatives in Exmouth, Devon, cared for by Alice (Adgie) Sweet, carer for the children of British parents in colonial India, and recalled her father's return from the Battle of Arnhem arriving home in his army uniform. After the war the family moved to Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya, after her father was appointed General Officer Commanding during the Malayan Emergency. This was followed by two years living by the Wörthersee in Austria while her father was General Officer Commanding of the British troops there before she returned to Exmouth and was sent to a convent school there. At school, she earned A levels that would have enabled her admission to Oxford, but her father vetoed the idea and she was instead sent to a finishing school near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. After school, Urquhart worked at the Conservative Party's Central Office in London and later at a venue on Park Lane, London, that hosted parties and dances, where she met her first husband.