Elizabeth Girling

Elizabeth Jean St Clair Girling (née Aytoun; 7 March 1913 – 24 March 2005) was an English veteran of the Spanish Civil War, a political activist and a charity campaigner.

Early life and education Elizabeth Aytoun was born 7 March 1913 in Birmingham, UK, to Dorothy Henderson and Rev Robert Aytoun, an Old Testament scholar. Cadbury funded Girling's education, and she attended St Leonards School in St Andrews, followed by Oxford University, where she studied English Literature; one of her tutors at Oxford was J R R Tolkien.

While at Oxford, Girling became a communist and would go on to work for both the League of Nations Association and Transport and General Workers' Union after graduation.

Activism and charity work Having left Spain, Girling opened the family home, Ashintully Castle, to refugees from Eastern Europe and London during World War Two,