Elizabeth Young (4) (1923–2014)

Elizabeth Young, Lady Kennet, née Adams, was born in London to a British naval officer and his wife. When she was a small child, the family moved often with her father to his various postings. She attended schools in France, Switzerland, and England, and became fluent in French. She won a scholarship to Oxford University, where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. During World War II, she served three years in the Women's Royal Naval Service. In 1948, she married Wayland Young, who later became Lord Kennet on the death of his father, politician Edward Hilton Young. The couple had six children. She worked with her brother-in-law Peter Scott in the earliest days of the Severn Wildlife Trust at Slimbridge.
She began writing with an article for Vogue on the island of Giglio in 1950, and continued to write for journals and magazines on a wide range of political issues. Her collection of poems Time is as Time Does (1958) was named Geoffrey Grigson's Poetry Book of the Year. She became deeply committed to the cause of arms control, in particularly nuclear weapons. She became the coordinator of UK Pugwash and was an active member of The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, for 39 years. She was also an enthusiastic preservationist and with her husband wrote Old London Churches (1956). Having helped to preserve Avebury in Wiltshire from development, she advised on the protection of Stonehenge. For more than 60 years, she and her family lived in an early 19th-century London house previously owned by writer J.M. Barrie. She spent her last few years writing a book called Preemptive Mourning, which was to be published posthumously. She also was an active member of many boards and organizations and was an honorary member of the Federation of American Scientists.