Davina Marcia Herbert Ingrams, 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire was a crossbench member of the House of Lords, continuing to sit after the passing of the House of Lords Acting 1999 as an elected peer.
Background
Ingrams was the daughter of Mervyn Herbert, 17th Baron Darcy de Knayth (also known as Viscount Clive, his courtesy title as son of the Earl of Powis). And his wife Vida, née Cuthbert. Through her grandfather, George Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis, she was descended from Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive.
Education
Heathfield School, Ascot.
Career
The barony had been created in 1332 for John Darcy, and revived twice after falling into abeyance. She inherited the barony in 1943, when her father was killed in action during the Second World War, flying a Mosquito as a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force. Lady Darcy de Knayth was educated at Street Mary"s School, Wantage, and later in Florence and the Sorbonne. They had three children.
Her husband was killed outright, and she was paralysed from the neck down.
She was treated at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, and later recovered some movement in her upper body. She became a wheelchair user, and took up table tennis and archery.
She was one of the first 16 hereditary peeresses admitted to the House of Lords in 1963, and spoke frequently on disability matters after taking up her seat in 1969. She was made a Dame (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her services to disabled people in 1996.
After the House of Lords Acting 1999 removed most of the hereditary peers from the House of Lords, she was selected as one of the select representative peers, coming top of the ballot of top of crossbench peers.
She died on 24 February 2008 of undisclosed causes. Her son, Caspar, succeeded as the 19th Baron Darcy de Knayth. The day after Lady Darcy"s death, the House of Lords paid her warm tribute when it passed the third reading of the Disabled Persons (Independent Living) Bill.