Papers of Lady Antonella Lothian

The archive consists of correspondence and papers relating to 'Copenhagen' a play by Michael Frayn concerning the Danish physicists and Nobel prize winners Niels Bohr and his son Aaye; biographical material relating to Valentina Tereshkova and Margaret Gowring, including photocopies.

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.

Deposited as a gift in the Fawcett Library by Lady Lothian in 1999.

Antonella Marchioness of Lothian (1923-2007) was born Antonella Newland in 1923. She was the daughter of Maj-Gen Sir Foster Reuss Newland KCMG, CB and Agnes Carr. During the Second World War she worked as a nursing auxiliary before marrying Peter Francis Walter Kerr (1922-2004) KCVO, 12th Marquess of Lothian in Apr 1943. They had six children including Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr, Earl Of Ancram and Lady Cecil Nennella Therese Kerr. Lady Lothian later became a journalist, working as a current affairs correspondent for the Scottish Daily Express from 1963-1973. She also became a freelance presenter and deviser of television and radio programmes in the period. She helped establish the Woman of the Year Lunch in 1955 with Lady Georgina Coleridge (see obituary Guardian 10 Apr 2003) and Odette Hallowes GC (née Churchill) and was its president until 1969. The annual lunch was an early attempt at networking, honouring many women selected for 'excellence in a chosen career'. The profits went to the Greater London Fund for the Blind. Lady Lothian also worked with the Royal College of Nursing as Vice President between 1960-1980 , and the Royal College of Gynaecologists. She was also a patron of the National Council of Women in the United Kingdom. She received an OBE for her work in 1977. In 1993 she published the biography of her friend Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian astronaut, called 'Valentina, First Woman in space. Conversations with A Lothian'.