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Virginia Bottomley
Virginia Bottomley was born in 1948 and was educated at the University of Essex. She married her husband, Peter Bottomley, in 1967, and he has been an MP since 1975.
She became an MP at a by-election in 1984 for the constituency of South West Surrey, promoted to a junior Minister at the Department of Environment in 1988 and then as a Minister of State for Health in 1989. After the 1992 General Election she was promoted to Cabinet rank and appointed as the Secretary of State for Health, and then as Secretary of State for National Heritage in 1995.
Following the 1997 General Election she stood down from the front-benches and then stood down at the 2005 General Election. She was raised to the Peerage in the same year as Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone.