Betty Harvie Anderson

Margaret Betty Harvie Anderson, Baroness Skrimshire of Quarter, (12 August 1913 – 7 November 1979) was a British Conservative Party politician. She was the first woman to become a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, which she served as from 1970 to 1973.

Early life Harvie Anderson was born in Glasgow on 12 August 1913 to Thomas Alexander Harvie Anderson and his wife, Margaret Agnes "Nessie" Harvie Anderson (née Shearer). She was educated at St Leonards School, a private school in St Andrews. When the ATS reorganised and granted full military status in 1941, she was made a second subaltern (equivalent in rank to a second lieutenant) on 30 May.

She saw active service on the Home Front during World War II, including a posting to the River Forth during the German air raids.

She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Renfrewshire East from 1959 to 1979. Although Betty Boothroyd was the first female Speaker of the House of Commons, Harvie Anderson was the first woman to sit in the Speaker's Chair as a Deputy Speaker (Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means) from 1970 to 1973. She retired as an MP in 1979. She took the unusual title of Baroness Skrimshire of Quarter, of Dunipace in the District of Falkirk, made up of her husband's surname and the estate she owned in Scotland.

On 7 November 1979, within a week of her introduction to the House of Lords, she died suddenly having suffered an asthma attack.

Personal life On 5 May 1960, Harvie Anderson married John Francis Penrose Skrimshire, a medical doctor and heart specialist. They had no children.