Peter Bottomley - Personal Life

Personal Life

In 1967 he married Virginia Garnett who later became a social scientist, an MP, a Cabinet Minister, and a life peer as Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone. They have a son and two daughters who went to Trinity College. They live in Worthing, West Sussex, Milford, Surrey and Westminster.

His brother was a Lambeth councillor; his brother-in-law was mayor of Cambridge; a first cousin was a Wandsworth councillor; his first cousins twice removed included Lord Tranmire who as Robin Turton MP for Thirsk and Malton for 44 years was Father of the House; Sir Robin Chichester-Clark MP and his brother Lord Moyola who as Major James Chichester-Clark served as Northern Ireland Prime Minister. His aunt's husband Ian Beddows was chairman of Wolverhampton South West when J. Enoch Powell stood down as Conservative candidate before the February 1974 general election. One niece is Kitty Ussher the economist, the former Labour MP and Minister. His great grand father Sir Richard Robinson led the Municipal Reformers, allied to the parliamentary Conservatives, to victory in the 1907 London Council election. Sir Richard's daughter Alice's husband Sir (William) Cecil Bottomley served in the Colonial Office before being the Senior Crown Agent for the Colonies. Cecil's son, Peter's father, James Bottomley was made KCMG when becoming Ambassador to South Africa when it was outside the Commonwealth. Peter's other grandmother's grandfather Sir William Lenox-Conyngham was the Drapers' Company's Agent in Northern Ireland.

Bottomley was present at the Heysel stadium disaster in Brussels on 29 May 1985 and was present at the later stages of the rescue work at the Kings Cross fire 18 November 1987 and at the Kegworth air disaster on 8 January 1989. He was knighted in the 2011 New Year Honours for public service.