Priscilla Cecilia Maria Reyntiens, The Lady Norman,
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
,
JP (20 March 1899 – 5 April 1991) was a London councillor, board member, and supporter of
mental health
Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...
and
nursing
Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
institutions.
Her father Major Robert Reyntiens was
Aide de Camp to
King Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.
Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Le ...
, whilst her mother Lady Alice Josephine Bertie was the daughter of the
7th Earl of Abingdon. In 1921, Reyntiens married Colonel Alexander Koch de Gooreynd of the Irish Guards, who adopted the anglicized name of 'Worsthorne'. She had two sons with de Gooreynd, but the marriage was dissolved in 1929. In 1933 she married again to
Montagu Collet Norman, governor of the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...
.
As a councillor, she served on both the
London County Council
The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...
and
Chelsea Borough Council. She was a founder member and, from 1938 to 1941, vice-chairman of the
Women’s Voluntary Services for Civil Defence. Reyntiens was board member for the
Maudsley Hospital
The Maudsley Hospital is a British psychiatric hospital in south London. The Maudsley is the largest mental health training institution in the UK. It is part of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and works in partnership with the I ...
in
Camberwell
Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross.
Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...
, vice-president of the
Royal College of Nursing
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a registered trade union and professional body in the United Kingdom for those in the profession of nursing. It was founded in 1916 as the College of Nursing, receiving its royal charter in 1928. Queen Eliz ...
, and honorary president of the
World Federation of Mental Health. She became a
JP in 1944.
She was made
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
in 1963.
Her younger son,
Peregrine Worsthorne
Sir Peregrine Gerard Worsthorne (22 December 1923 – 4 October 2020) was a British journalist, writer, and broadcaster. He spent the largest part of his career at the ''Telegraph'' newspaper titles, eventually becoming editor of ''The Sunday ...
, was editor of the ''
Sunday Telegraph
''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegr ...
'' from 1986 to 1989. Her elder son is
Simon Towneley
Sir Simon Peter Edmund Cosmo William Towneley ( Koch de Gooreynd; 14 December 1921 – 11 November 2022) was a British author who served as Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire from 1976 to 1997.
Early life and education
Towneley was born in St Geor ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reyntiens, Priscilla
1899 births
1991 deaths
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norma ...
Members of London County Council
Members of Chelsea Metropolitan Borough Council
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
English people of Belgian descent
English people of Dutch descent
Bertie family
Priscilla
Priscilla is an English female given name adopted from Latin '' Prisca'', derived from ''priscus''. There is a theory that this biblical character was the author of the Letter to the Hebrews.
The name first appears in the New Testament either ...
Schuyler family
Women councillors in England