Lady Longford, the renowned historian, radical writer and prominent agitator for social justice in Britain, died peacefully in her sleep yesterday, aged 96.
The wife of penal reformer and Anglo-Irish writer Lord Longford - who died last year - passed away in her home in Sussex, in the south of England, shortly after midnight.
Best known for her biographies of Queen Victoria, she leaves 22 books, eight children, 26 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren in a talented family of more than 60 people.
Lady Longford was an outspoken supporter of the British Labour Party for seven decades. She stood as a parliamentary candidate on three occasions, the first in the 1930s, but never fulfilled her lifetime's ambition of taking a Westminster seat.
Born Elizabeth Harman, she met her husband when they were students at Oxford University and married in 1931.
Lord Longford died last year, at the age of 95, just short of the couple's 70th wedding anniversary.
Her daughter, Lady Antonia Fraser, said yesterday her end came "peacefully in her sleep, like a Sleeping Beauty" at her home in Hurst Green, Sussex.
She said her mother had recently stayed in a nursing home but had decided to return to the family home.
"She was not suffering from any particular illness, she simply died of old age," Lady Antonia said.