Barbara Abney-Hastings, 13th Countess of Loudoun


Barbara Huddleston Abney-Hastings, 13th Countess of Loudoun, was a Scottish countess in her own right, and a member of the House of Lords. Lady Loudoun was the oldest daughter of Reginald Mowbray Chichester Huddleston and Edith Abney-Hastings, 12th Countess of Loudoun. Her father took her mother's last name. Her only brother, Ian Huddleston Abney-Hastings, styled Lord Mauchline, was killed in Italy in World War II, so as the eldest sister, Barbara succeeded to the earldom in 1960.
Lady Loudoun was a member of the House of Lords until 1999 when the right of hereditary peers to sit in the Lords was abolished. She sat as a cross-bencher, and was concerned with social justice. She lived in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire.

Ancestry

On her mother's side, she was descended from and heir-general of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence. Her other notable ancestors include Mary Tudor, Queen of France; King James IV of Scotland; William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley; and Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby.

Marriages and children

Lady Loudoun married three times. She married, firstly, Captain Walter Strickland Lord on 5 September 1939. They had one child:
Her second marriage was on 21 November 1945 to Captain Gilbert Frederick Greenwood. They had two children:
Her third and final marriage was to Peter Griffiths on 15 September 1954. They had three children:
On her death she was succeeded by her oldest son.