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Kathleen Margaret Richardson, Baroness Richardson of Calow, OBE (born 24 February 1938) is a British Methodist minister. Created a life peer in 1998, she is a member of the House of Lords, where she sits as a crossbencher.
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Early life and education
Richardson was born on 24 February 1938 to Francis and Margaret Fountain. She was educated at St Helena School, a an-girls secondary school in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. She then attended Stockwell College, a teacher training college where she completed a Certificate in Education. She trained for ordained ministry at the Deaconess College in Ilkley and at Wesley House in Cambridge.
Ordained ministry
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 Methodist Church of Great Britain. Later she became the first female President of the Methodist Conference from 1992 to 1993. She was the moderator of the Free Churches Federal Council from 1995 to 1999.
Personal life
In 1964, the then Kathleen Fountain married Ian David Godfrey Richardson. Together they have had three daughter.
Honours
In the 1996 New Year Honours, Richardson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to the Methodist community". On 3 August 1998 she was made a Life peer as Baroness Richardson of Calow, of Calow in the County of Derbyshire.