Diana Louie Elles, Baroness Elles was a barrister and United Nations representative from the United Kingdom.
Background
Born Diana Newcombe in Bedford, she was the daughter of Colonel Stewart Francis Newcombe and his wife Elisabeth Chaki, who he had met in his war captivity. Her father was a close friend of T.E.Lawrence, who was the godfather of her brother Stuart Lawrence Newcombe (born 1920).
Education
After education at private schools in London, Paris and Florence, she went to the University of London, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Italian in 1941.
Career
She was a delegate to the European Parliament for over a decade. Her son is James Elles. During the Second World War Elles served in the Women"s Auxiliary Air Force, becoming a Flight Officer in 1944.
Versed in mathematics she was attached to Bletchley Park and was part of a team of code-breakers.
Elles was called to the bar by Lincoln"s Inn in 1956 and worked in the voluntary care committee in Kennington. She was director of the National Institute of Houseworkers, opening a training college in 1963.
In July 1970, Elles became chairman of the British section of the European Union of Women and three years later of the organisation as a whole. In 1972, Edward Heath, at that time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom arranged for her a life peerage and on 2 May she was created Baroness Elles, of the City of Westminster.
When Labour took office in 1974, she sat on the Opposition benches in the House of Lords and acted as Spokesperson for foreign and European affairs
She was trustee of the Industry and Parliament Trust from 1985 and in 1990 a trustee of the Caldecott Community that was originally founded as a London nursery in 1911 - latterly a residential (therapeutic) community for children in care. Elles was appointed an honorable bencher of Lincoln"s Inn in 1993. After her retirement from politician, she spent her time supporting the British Institute of Florence.
In 1972, Elles joined the British delegation to the United Nations General Assembly and after a year was added to the United Nations Sub-Commission for Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
She was nominated United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in 1975. Four years later, she resigned her offices with the United Nations. Edward Heath sent her to the European Parliament in 1973, where she headed the international office until 1978, when Elles had to make room for a Labour delegate.
From 1982, she served as the Parliament"s vice-president and two years later, stood unsuccessfully for the presidency. When in 1987, her term ended, she ran for the leadership of the European Democratic Group, however was defeated by Christopher Prout.
Membership
In 1977 Elles became a council member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs until 1986 and subsequently was governor of the University of Reading until 1996. Elles left the Parliament in 1989 and became a member of the Belgian law firm Van Bael and Bellis.