Background
She was born in Maidstone, Kent, where her father was a director of the Lead Wool Company, a tool company.
She was born in Maidstone, Kent, where her father was a director of the Lead Wool Company, a tool company.
Callaghan was educated at Maidstone Grammar School, then studied cookery at Battersea College of Domestic Science. At the same time, she studied economics at a University of London extension course in Eltham, with Hugh Gaitskell as tutor.
She would chair Maidstone Labour Party and Fabian Society. They honeymooned in Paris and Chamonix and then returned to rent a house in Norwood. She worked as a dietician at an antenatal clinic in Greenwich during World World War II, a young mother herself.
She made a special study of malnutrition in children and its remedies.
She was somewhat derided, described as "the Yorkshire Pudding", ostensibly for her skill in cooking, but also as a reference to her perceived poor dress sense and mildly disorganised appearance. She was ridiculed for her hobby of keeping pigs.
She remained very private and shunned the limelight. However, she was engaged with her husband"s jobs and was said to be instrumental in dissuading him from resignation after the 1967 devaluation of the pound.
In 1959, Audrey was elected as Labour member for Lewisham for the London County Council.
She was an alderman of the Greater London Council from 1964 and became chairman of Lewisham Council"s children"s committee, where she was also an alderman, when the Greater London Council was abolished. In 1969 Callaghan became the chair of the board of governors of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. She continued raising funds for the hospital for the next thirty years, most notably securing an extension of copyright on Peter Pan for the hospital by a Lords amendment moved by James.
In 1987, when James was created Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, she became Lady Callaghan.
She herself refused a damehood from Margaret Thatcher. They retired to a farm in Ringmer, East Sussex, where she kept pigs and he kept cows and sheep, and grew barley.
During her eighties, Callaghan developed Alzheimer"s disease. He died just eleven days after her death.
She had three children: Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, Julia and Michael.
James had been elected a Member of Parliament for Cardiff in 1945 and she was at his side throughout his career.