Nelia Penman
Barrister and prominent Liberal Party activist of the postwar era
NELIA PENMAN, who has died aged 101, was a Liberal activist who stood in the 1945, 1959 and 1964 elections and was a founding member, with Jo Grimond, of the Liberal debating society the 8:30 Club.
She was born Nelia Muspratt in Hampstead, London, on November 6 1915 into a prominent Liverpool Liberal family. Her grandfather and great grandfather were chemical industrialists with factories in Liverpool, St Helens and Newton-le-willows, her grandfather Edmund, a fervent believer in free trade, standing unsuccessfully as Liberal parliamentary candidate for Widnes in 1885.
Her uncle, Max Muspratt, served briefly as Liberal MP for Liverpool Exchange in 1910 (though he later left the party for the Conservatives) and was given a baronetcy. An aunt, Nessie Stewartbrown, was a prominent suffragist who stood unsuccessfully as Liberal parliamentary candidate for Waterloo, a division of Lancashire, at the 1922 General Election.
When Nelia was six her family moved to a farm in Hertfordshire, where she learnt to drive horses and by the age of 10 would drive herself to a private school in Berkhamstead in her pony and trap. Her last three years of school were spent boarding in Kensington, and in 1933 she was presented to King George V. The same year she took up fencing, reaching competition level as well as teaching, until a wrist injury meant that she had to give up competition.
In 1936 she became a founder member of the 8.30 Club, a young Liberal debating society that gathered on six occasions each year until the outbreak of war to debate international issues. In one debate, in 1936, she advocated the creation of an International Police Force under the control of the League of Nations. In 1937 she advocated the suppression of Fascist and Communist propaganda.
In 1938 she was chosen as Liberal prospective parliamentary candidate for Liverpool Wavertree for the forthcoming general election expected to take place in 1939/40, but which was not held due to the outbreak of war. During the war she continued as PPC for Wavertree, joined the Ministry of Information, served as a station officer with the London Ambulance Service and studied law in her spare time. In 1941 she spoke at the Liberal Assembly in favour of the creation of a Ministry of Civil Defence.
In 1945 she was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn. She did not contest Wavertree and instead stood as Liberal candidate for the safe Conservative seat of Sevenoaks at the 1945 general election, but was pushed into third place by Labour. Two years later, in 1947, she married Derek Penman, who had served in Italy during the war, earning a Mention in Dispatches, and later served as chairman and vicepresident of the Lawn Tennis Association. As Nelia Penman she stood again for Sevenoaks in the 1959 and 1964 elections, coming third each time.
Nelia Penman presided over the Women’s Liberal Federation in 1978 to 1979 and continued to serve on the Federation’s executive and political action committee.
In later years she put her legal and political knowledge to good use at the Citizens Advice Bureau, and represented her local community in Woldingham, Surrey, where she lived for more than 60 years, on issues concerning rights of way and planning enquiries.
Dignified but convivial and with a sparky sense of humour, Nelia Penman enjoyed an active social life and was a keen bridge player. Very much an old-fashioned Liberal, she rued the merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democrats.
In 1981 she was awarded the OBE for political services.
Her marriage to Derek Penman was dissolved in 1974. She is survived by their three daughters.