The Honourable Anna Maria Heywood, Lady Barlow (1873 – 28 May 1965) was an English welfare reformer and Liberal politician. Education and family Anna Maria Heywood Denman was born in 1873 in Liverpool, the daughter of the Hon. Richard Denman and Helen McMicking. Her brother was Thomas Denman, 3rd Baron Denman. She was educated privately. In 1895 she married John Emmott Barlow, the Liberal MP for Frome in Somerset and senior partner in his family businesses with principal interests in textiles, tea and coffee and rubber. They had two sons and two daughters. Her son John who succeeded his father to become the second baronet was Liberal candidate for Northwich in 1929. He later became a National Liberal representing Eddisbury from 1945–1950 and then a fully fledged Conservative being MP for Middleton and Prestwich from 1951–1966. In religion, Sir John and Lady Barlow were Quakers, Lady Barlow having converted to that denomination in about 1911. Politics Lady Barlow was a steadfast companion to her husband in his Somerset constituency over many years. She shared his political interests and campaigned with him and on his behalf. The couple were close friends of Liberal Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. She also stood in her own right for election to the House of Commons twice as a Liberal. First she contested the Derbyshire, High Peak division at the 1922 general election. At this election only thirty-three women were selected as candidates out of 1,387 contenders for the House of Commons’ 615 seats and only two, the Tory Lady Astor and the Liberal Margaret Wintringham were elected. Lady Barlow came third at High Peak in a three-cornered contest with 20% of the vote. She next fought the nearby seat of Ilkeston at the 1924 general election. The number of women candidates was growing now but there was a still a real sense in which they were pioneers. Overall only forty-one women were chosen to stand for election and Lady Barlow was one of only six female candidates out of a total of 333 Liberal hopefuls. Again she came third in a three-cornered race. A champion of the political rights of women, Lady Barlow was also a strong supporter of the traditional Liberal policy of free trade and shared her husband's close interest in labour affairs. In her later life during the 1950s and 60s, at a time when the Liberal Party had declined in