Mary Soames

Mary Soames, Baroness Soames, (; 15 September 1922 31 May 2014) was an English author. The youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, she worked for public organisations including the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1941. She was the wife of Conservative politician Christopher Soames. Biography Mary Spencer-Churchill was born in London, in the same week as her father, Winston Churchill, purchased Chartwell, a country house in Kent; she was brought up there, attending local schools. She worked for the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1941 with which she served in London, Belgium and Germany in mixed anti-aircraft batteries, rising to the rank of Junior Commander (equivalent to Captain). She accompanied her father as aide-de-camp on several of his overseas journeys, including his post-VE trip to Potsdam, where he met Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin. In 1945, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), in recognition of meritorious military services. She served many public organisations, such as the International Churchill Society, as a Patron; Church Army and Churchill Houses; and chaired the Royal National Theatre Board of Trustees between 1989 and 1995. She was Patron of the National Benevolent Fund for the Aged.