Jean Denton, Baroness Denton of Wakefield

Jean Denton, Baroness Denton of Wakefield, CBE (29 December 1935 – 5 February 2001) was a British businesswoman, racing driver and Conservative Party politician.

Background Jean Moss was born in Wakefield on 1935, the daughter of Charles and Kathleen Moss (born Tuke). Until 1966 she worked for IPC Media and until 1969 she led the Hotel and Catering Department of the University of Surrey. In her spare time she won the 1967 and 1968 title of Britain's Woman Racing Champion. She served as a Baroness-in-Waiting from 1991–2. She was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry from 1992–3, at the Department of Energy from 1993–4, and at the Northern Ireland Office from 1994–7. After the 1997 general election, she served as the Conservative opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry in the House of Lords.

Personal life and death In 1959, Jean Moss married Tony Denton, an engineer; they divorced in 1974.

Denton was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989, which was treated at the time with a lumpectomy. In 1998, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour, and she died at a care home in London on 5 February 2001, at the age of 65.