Betty Boothroyd leaves £3.7 million to charity
Betty Boothroyd, the former Black Country MP and Speaker of the House of Commons, has left almost her entire £3.7 million fortune to charities.
Baroness Boothroyd, who served as MP for West Bromwich for 27 years until her retirement in 2000, died on February 26 aged 93.
Probate papers show that most of her will went to a string of charities, including Guide Dogs For the Blind, the Samaritans, Marie Curie, the Royal British Legion, and two hospices.
Several pieces of artwork were left to the House of Commons, including her portrait by John Bratby plus watercolours of the Palace of Westminster by MPs. Other items listed include a box given by Russian president Boris Yeltsin and a silver teapot from 1799.
Betty Boothroyd was born in Dewsbury on October 8, 1929, and was elected Labour MP for West Bromwich at a by-election in 1973. At the 1974 General Election she was re-elected for the new seat of West Bromwich West, following boundary changes, which she held until her retirement in 2000.
She became the first and, to date, only female Speaker of the House of Commons in 1992, a post she held until her retirement. In January 2001 she was ennobled Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell, and sat in the House of Lords as a cross-bench peer until her death.
Baroness Boothroyd, who never married, died at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridgeshire on February 26.
