Platt Of Writtle, Baroness (1923–)
Platt Of Writtle, Baroness (1923–)
English aeronautical engineer. Name variations: Beryl Catherine Myatt; Beryl Platt. Born Beryl Catherine Myatt, April 18, 1923; grew up at Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, England; dau. of Ernest and Dorothy Myatt; sister of Lt. Col. James Myatt, noted sailing trainer; Girton College, Cambridge, BA in mechanical sciences, 1943, MA; m. Stewart Sidney Platt, 1949 (died 2003); children: 1 son, 1 daughter.
Worked as a technical assistant in Hawker Aircraft's Experimental Flight Test Department, Langley (1943–46); employed in Project and Development Department of British Airways Corp. (1946–49), but was forced to give up position after she married, then a standard policy for female employees; served on council of Chelmsford Rural District (1958–74) and Essex County (1965–85); raised to the life peerage as Baroness Platt of Writtle (1981), became a Conservative in the House of Lords; appointed chair of Equal Opportunities Commission (1983–88); encouraged girls to enter science and engineering; elected nonexecutive director of British Gas (1988–94); was president of Association of Science Education (1988); was a member of the House of Lords Select Committee for Science and Technology. Named freeman of the City of London, a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Engineers (1988); made CBE (1978).