Baroness Trumpington tops claims to Lloyd George fame

Baroness Trumpington has topped fellow Lords' claims to fame after one of them said their father had met Lloyd George.

The veteran Tory peer prompted laughter as she responded in the Lords: "Is this minister aware that I not only knew Lloyd George, but I was his Land Girl."

The exchanges came after reference was made to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the World War One PM.

Government spokesman Lord Wallace of Saltaire had told peers that his father had met the famous Liberal leader.

As Lady Trumpington tried to press on with her remarks about students on the electoral register, the laughter continued, prompting her to joke: "Shut up everybody!".

The peer, 90, was speaking during the daily questions session in the Lords, on the morning of the 150th anniversary of Lloyd George's birth.

Lord Wallace had told the chamber: "We have somewhere a photograph of my father with Lloyd George. There are about 3,000 people in the picture but never mind, it's still historic," he quipped.

David Lloyd George, who died in 1945, was prime minister between 1916 and 1922.

The 'V Sign'

The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created during the First and Second World Wars to work in agriculture replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the WLA were commonly known as Land Girls.

Lady Trumpington, who worked at code-breaking facility Bletchley Park during the Second World War, became a huge internet hit last year when she made a two-fingered gesture at a colleague during a debate in the House of Lords.

The peer took exception to remarks by Conservative ex-Cabinet minister Lord King suggesting veterans of the World War Two were getting "pretty old".

Lady Trumpington said she meant the gesture but tried to pretend "her hand slipped".

"In point of fact, he and I are jolly good friends. I just thought he had gone too far looking at me and saying 'how old I look'," she told BBC Parliament.

As Jean Barker, she served at Bletchley Park, whose code breaking techniques were instrumental in the war effort, between 1941 and 1946.

After the war, she worked in local government - becoming Mayor of Cambridge - before entering the Lords in 1980 and becoming a minister in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.