Gillian Joynson-Hicks, Vicountess Brentford, has died age 81. Lady Brentford had deep evangelical Christian beliefs, a ‘steely determination’ to advance them, and held several influential positions to this end.
Born in Kenya in 1942, Gillian was educated at West Heath Girls’ School in Kent. During her childhood, she suffered from rickets, which, according to The Telegraph, gave her ‘a lifelong fellow-feeling for those who were struggling.’ After training as a chartered accountant, she married the then Hon. Crispin Joynson-Hicks in 1964, bringing up three daughters and a son in Sussex.
In 1998, Lady Brentford became President of the Church Mission Society and held the position until 2007 – she was also chosen by George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, to become the Third Estates Commissioner in 1999 (the first woman to hold the position). Indeed, The Telegraph reported that to many observers she seemed to have ‘unfettered access to the Archbishop’s ear’.
From 1990 to 2005, Lady Brentford was a member of the General Synod for the Diocese of Chichester where she had a ‘steely determination to advance her ecclesiastical interests’. She became a Church Commissioner in 1991. Arguably, her position of greatest influence was her role sitting on the Crown Appointments Commission from 1995-2002 – the body responsible for selecting clergy for bishoprics and other senior Church of England positions. Her other initiatives involved beginning the East Sussex Prayer Breakfast and setting up Bible studies for peeresses.
According to The Telegraph, she once asked if she could take part in riot-management training and high-speed car chases, as she wanted ‘to know what it feels like.’
In 1996, she was given an OBE for her charitable work.
