Valerie Goulding

Valerie Hamilton, Lady Goulding (12 September 1918 – 28 July 2003) was an Irish campaigner for disabled people, and senator who set up the Central Remedial Clinic in 1951 alongside Kathleen O'Rourke which is now the largest organisation in Ireland looking after people with physical disabilities. She served as a member of Seanad Éireann from 1977 to 1981. Background Born Valerie Hamilton Monckton, she was the only daughter of Mary Adelaide Somes Colyer-Ferguson and Sir Walter Monckton (later 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley). She was born at Ightham Mote, which was owned by her maternal grandfather, Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson, until his death in 1951. Her only brother, Gilbert (1915–2006), became a Major general in the British Army. She was educated at Downe House School, near Newbury. Both Valerie and her brother, Gilbert, would ultimately convert to Roman Catholicism. Her father was a British lawyer and politician, and became chief legal adviser to Edward VIII during the Abdication Crisis in 1936. She acted as her father's secretary and courier during the crisis, carrying letters between the King and the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. Career In World War II, she joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry before switching to the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In Dublin for a race meeting in 1939, she met and soon married Irish fertiliser manufacturer and art collector Sir Basil Goulding and moved to Ireland. However, her husband moved to England to join the RAF, ending the war as a wing commander; meanwhile, she served as a second lieutenant in the British Army. After the war, the couple returned to Ireland, where Sir Basil and his family managed Goulding Chemicals.