SEEAR, Beatrice Nancy, 1913-1997, Baroness Seear of Paddington, social scientist and politician

Papers of Beatrice Nancy Seear, Baroness Seear of Paddington, [1930]-1997, mainly comprising case studies, reports and memoranda relating to her work with the Runnymeade Industrial Unit, the London Business School Minority Groups, and the Community Relations Commission, as well as material concerning women's employment.

Born 1913; educated Croyden High School, Newnham College at Cambridge University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science; Personnel Officer, C & J Clark Ltd, 1936-1946; seconded as part-time member of staff, Production Efficiency Board, Ministry of Aircraft Production, 1943-1945; Teacher of, and Reader in, Personnel Management, LSE, 1946-1978; contested Hornchurch, 1950 and 1951, Truro, 1955 and 1959, Epping, 1964, Rochdale, 1966, and Wakefield, 1970, as a Liberal; President, Liberal Party, 1964-1965; President, Fawcett Society, 1970-1985; Top Salaries Review Board, 1971-1984; created Life Peer, 1971; Member of Council, Industrial Society, 1972-1984; President, British Standards Institute, 1974-1977; President, Women's Liberal Federation, 1974; Hansard Social Commission on Electoral Reform, 1975-1976; President, Institute of Personnel Management, 1977-1979; Visiting Professor of Personnel Management, City University, 1980-1987; Leader of the Liberal Party, House of Lords, 1984-1988; Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, House of Lords, 1988-1997; died 1997. Publications: Women in the penal system (Report for the Howard League for Penal Reform, 1986); Training: the fulcrum of change (British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education, London, 1976); Interdependence and survival: population policies and environmental control (Wyndham Place Trust, London, 1976); A career for women in industry (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1964); Policies for incomes (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1967); Education: a quantum leap? (Hebden Royd Publications, Hebden Bridge, 1988).

Unsorted.

Closed.

Unlisted.

Sources: Who's Who 1897-1996 (A & C Black, 1996); British Library On-Line Public Access Catalogue 97; Historical Manuscripts Commission National Register of Archives. Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

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Transferred from Baroness Seear's flat in 1998.

The British Library of Political and Economic Science holds material relating to Baroness Seear in the papers of Joanna Elizabeth Kelley (Ref: Kelley 2/18), the LSE (Ref: LSE/Oral History/1/20 and 2/3), and Professor Sir Arnold Plant. There is also general election ephemera (Ref: Coll Misc 0321, 0370 and 0401). The Women's Library (Fawcett Library), London Guildhall University, holds papers relating to women in industrial employment and equal opportunities, 1963-1988 (Ref: GB/106/7/BNS2) and parliamentary working papers for consultation papers and official reports, [1969-1975] (Ref: GB/106/7/BNS); Cambridge University Library holds letters to her family, 1932-1935 (Ref: Add 9502).