Lady Violet Bonham-Carter

Violet Bonham Carter (15 April 1887, Hampstead, London — 19 February 1969, London), Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury, DBE (Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), was a British politician and diarist. She was the daughter of politician and UK Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith from his first marriage; Violet's biological mother died of typhoid fever when she was four, and Herbert's second wife, Margot Asquith (1864—1945), raised her. Helen Violet had four brothers and filmmaker Anthony Asquith was her step-brother. She is the grandmother of actress Helena Bonham Carter (b. 1966). Carter was engaged in politics, acting as the President of the Women's Liberal Federation (from 1923 to 1925) and President of the Liberal Party (1945 to 1947) after the Second World War. She was a patron of arts and literature and a prolific diarist, keeping detailed journals for most of her life. Violet Carter was Winston Churchill's closest female friend, apart from his wife.