Laura Elizabeth Pochin Lady McLaren Baroness Aberconway

Baroness Aberconway CBE, DStJ was a British suffragist, author and horticulturalist. She was born in Salford, Lancashire in 1854. She was the daughter of Henry Davis Pochin, a noted industrialist and chemist wife, Agnes (née Heap) (1825–1908), herself a women's rights activist.

She married, on 6 March 1877, Charles McLaren, a business associate of her father's, in Westminster. He would later be created Baron Aberconway, and they would have four children.

Baroness Aberconway was a campaigner for women's suffrage, founding the Liberal Women's Suffrage Union and publishing some writings on the subject. During World War I, she converted her house in London into a hospital and helped run it.

She died in 1933 at her home, Château de la Garoupe, on the Cap d’Antibes.

In 1918, Aberconway was appointed as a CBE. She was also appointed as a Dame of Grace of the Venerable Order of Saint John.

Outside of politics, Aberconway was a talented artist and horticulturalist. She and her husband worked to expand and improve the Bodnant Garden begun by her father. Château de la Garoupe is hailed for his beautiful garden.

Her father Henry Pochin was a successful industrialist and radical Liberal, and her mother Agnes Heap a pioneer of Women’s Suffrage.

Four of her siblings died in childhood. She took on her parents’ Bodnant estate following the disinheritance of her remaining brother (after his ‘unsuitable’ marriage and a scandalous court case.)

She married into a Scottish Quaker family of equal campaigning credentials; her husband Charles McLaren was the barrister, businessman and politician nephew of celebrated Liberal orator John Bright (who in 1911 was created Lord Aberconwy for his services to country); her mother-in-law, Priscilla Bright-McLaren, a leading early campaigner for women’s rights.

Laura was a woman of formidable character, intellect and talent. From an early age she was helping her father with the management of Bodnant Estate and shaping the garden. In later years she went on to be awarded the prestigious RHS Victoria Medal of Honour.

In 1901 she handed the day-to- day care of Bodnant Garden to her eldest son Henry on his 21st birthday, to devote more time to political life. From her London home she served with the London National Society of Women’s Suffrage lecturing, writing pamphlets and rallying government support, aided by her suffragist daughters Florence and Elsie.

In 1909 she produced The Women’s Charter of Rights and Liberties for the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. During WW1 she also ran a nursing home for officers in her home in Belgrave Square, for which she was awarded a CBE.

She carried the baton alongside Agnes and Priscilla, serving with the National Society of Women’s Suffrage lecturing, writing pamphlets and rallying government support. In 1909 she produced The Women’s Charter of Rights and Liberties for the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, a key part in the passage of the Representation of the People Act 1918.

On her death the Times described Laura as one of the greatest horticulturists in Europe, adding: “To watch Lady Aberconwy walking round the gardens with her son was to see two beings as near to complete happiness as is given in the world, and to be able to create and leave behind such a heritage of beauty is a rare and precious legacy.”

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Dec 31 2017, 18:31:11 UTC