Kathleen Richardson, Baroness Richardson of Calow
Kathleen Margaret Richardson, Baroness Richardson of Calow, is a British Methodist minister who was the first woman to serve as Methodist Conference. Created a life peer in 1998, she served as a crossbench member of the House of Lords until 2018.
Early life and education
Richardson was born on 24 February 1938 to Francis and Margaret Fountain. She was educated at St Helena School, an all-girls secondary school in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. She then attended Stockwell College of Education, where she completed a Certificate in Education. She trained for ordained ministry at the Deaconess College in Ilkley and at Wesley House in Cambridge.Ministry and activism
Richardson was made a deaconess in 1961 and ordained as a presbyter in 1980.Richardson was the first woman to become a chair of district within the British Methodist Church. Later she became the first female President of the Methodist Conference, serving a one-year term from 1992 to 1993. She was the moderator of the Free Churches Federal Council from 1995 to 1999.
As a peer, Richardson was active in the House of Lords from 3 August 1998 until her retirement on 20 December 2018. She sat on the crossbenches and was a member of the Committee On Religious Offence.
She is a patron of Methodist Homes (MHA). Richardson is also a patron of a right to die organization, My Death, My Decision. It wants to see a more compassionate approach to dying in the UK, including giving people the legal right to a medically assisted death if that is their persistent wish