Baroness Thomas of Winchester / Patron
Celia Thomas was born (in 1945) and brought up in Winchester where she worked, among other places, at the Cathedral's Choir School, and raising money for the Cathedral.
She was a founding member of the Winchester Liberal Party in the 1960s, and was an election agent there in October 1974, and in 1987 and 1992 in Brecon and Radnor.
She worked in the Commons for the Liberal Party Leader, Jeremy Thorpe from 1975-76, and from 1977 to 2005 she was head of the Liberal, then Liberal Democrat Whips' Office in the House of Lords and is a recognised expert on Lords' procedure. She was made a Life Peer in April 2006.
She is a member of several Lords' committees, including the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee (voted Committee of the Year 2007), Liaison Committee, and Procedure Committee, and is a member of the party's Work and Pensions team in the Lords. She helped gain concessions in two recent Acts: the Welfare Reform Act 2007 and the Pensions Act 2007.
She is also Chair of the Keynes Forum, a member of the Advisory Board for CentreForum, and Vice-President of the Lloyd George Society.
Her interests range from music to butterfly conservation, but sadly increasing disability due to muscular dystrophy means that she can no longer participate in choirs or in dashing about the countryside as she used to.
