Background
Her father was himself a younger son of Alexander Fuller-Acland-Hood, 1st Baron Street Audries.
Her father was himself a younger son of Alexander Fuller-Acland-Hood, 1st Baron Street Audries.
John Acland-Hood, a barrister and his wife, Phyllis (née Hallett), Elizabeth Acland-Hood was educated at Cheltenham Ladies" College and Girton College, Cambridge. Having graduated from the University of Cambridge, Acland-Hood worked as a schoolteacher, teaching mathematics.
The eldest daughter and co-heiress of the Honorary In 1967 she inherited from an uncle her family"s ancestral seat, Fairfield House, near Stogursey, Somerset, and gave up her teaching career to concentrate on managing the estate which came with lieutenant He was a former High Commissioner for the Western Pacific (1969-1971) and Governor of the Solomon Islands (1969-1973), and they had no children.
In 1985, two years after being widowed, Gass was elected to Somerset County Council, as a Conservative Party Councillor for the Quantock district, and remained a member until 1997.
From 1989-1993 she was Chairman of the Exmoor National Park Committee and at the same time was Vice-Chairman of the county council"s Social Services Committee. In 1994 she was High Sheriff of Somerset, the next year was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Somerset, and in 1996 was promoted to Vice Lord-Lieutenant and appointed as a Justice of the Peace for the county.
In 1998, she became Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, a position she still held in 2013. In 2011, she attracted considerable negative attention after selling some 230 acres of land on the coast beneath the Quantock Hills for about £50 million.
The land was the part of her Fairfield estate lying immediately to the west of the Hinkley Point power station and was wanted for the construction of two new nuclear reactors.
Other appointments
Director, Avalon National Health Service Trust, 1993-1996
Commissioner, English Heritage, 1995–2001
National Executive Committee, Country Landowners Association, 1998–2003
Wessex Committee, HHA, 1998-present
Wells Cathedral Council, since 2004
Trustee of West of England School for Children with Little or no Sight, 1996–2008
President, Royal Bath and West of England Society, 2002-2003
President, Somerset County Scout Council
Patron, Somerset Sight
Patron, British Red Cross in Somerset, 2013-present
Vice-President Wessex Reserve Forces" and Cadets" Association 1998-2015.
Member of Committee of National Trust (Wessex) 1994–2002
Member of Council of Cheltenham Ladies" College, 1992–2001
Member of Council of Bath University, 1999–2002.
