Name Hazel Baroness | Role Life peer | |
Hazel Osborne Byford, Baroness Byford DBE DL (born 14 January 1941) is a Conservative member of the House of Lords, where she served as Opposition Parliamentary Spokesman for Food, Farming and Rural Affairs from 1997 to 2007.
Her father, Sir Cyril Osborne, was Conservative MP for Louth, Lincolnshire from 1945 to 1969. She married, in 1962, Charles Barrie Byford, CBE (1931–2013). She was raised to the Peerage for life as Baroness Byford, of Rothley in the County of Leicestershire in 1996, having been appointed a DBE in 1994.
Lady Byford is president of Leicestershire Clubs for Young People, an honorary patron of the Church Lads' and Church Girls' Brigade and a patron of several rural organisations: Women Food and Farming Union, National Farm Attractions Network, and the Institute of the Agricultural Secretaries and Administrators. Since 2007 she has served as president of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers. She is a fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society and an honorary canon of Leicester Cathedral.
Byford serves as a Deputy Lieutenant for Leicestershire. She was a Warden of the Worshipful Company of Farmers and was Master of the Company in 2013/2014 in the City of London.
She and her husband live on their poultry farm in Leicestershire. In 2008, Byford received an Honorary Doctorate of Science (Hon DSc) from Nottingham Trent University in recognition of her outstanding contribution and commitment to agriculture and rural life.