Margaret Heather Laird

Laird's first career was in teaching.^[3] She was divinity mistress at the Grey Coat Hospital, an all-girls state school in London, from 1955 to 1959.^[4] She then taught at Newquay Grammar School, a co-education state grammar school in Newquay (1959 to 1960), and at St Albans High School, an all-girls private school in St Albans (1960 to 1962).^[4] Having married in 1961, she took a break from teaching to "concentrated on motherhood".^[1] She returned to her career, and her final teaching position was as head of religious studies at Dame Alice Harpur School, an all-girls independent school in Bedford, between 1969 and 1989.^[4]

In 1980, Laird was elected to the General Synod of the Church of England as a representative from the Diocese of St Albans.^[4][2] She continued to sit as a lay member from that diocese until she became an ex-officio member as a church commissioner from 1990.^[4] In September 1988, she was selected by Robert Runcie, the then Archbishop of the Church of England, to be the next Third Church Estates Commissioner.^[3][2] The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England, and the Third Commissioner is chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury. She served as Third Church Estates Commissioner for a decade, between 1989 and 1999.^[4] As Commissioner, she was a member of the Standing Committee of the General Synod and of the Church of England's Pension Board during her time in office.^[1][4]

In the 1999 New Year Honours, Laird was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services as a Church Commissioner.^[5]

Active in traditionalist Anglo-Catholic circles, she was a vocal opposer of the ordination of women.^[2] From 1993, she was the first female governor of Pusey House, Oxford; she was its vice-president from 2014.^[4][2] She also served as vice-president of the Society for the Maintenance of the Faith from 1994 until her death, and was a trustee of the Oxford Movement Anniversary Appeal Trust between 1996 and 2010.^[4] Through her husband, she also had links with Forward in Faith.^[2]

While studying at King's College, London, she met her future husband, John Laird.^[1] He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1959,^[6] and they married in 1961.^[4] After parish ministry, her husband became chaplain and then principal of Bishops' College, Cheshunt, an Anglican theological college.^[6] After the closure of Bishops' College, he became a vicar and then one of the only domestic chaplains to a private family, as chaplain to the Marquess of Salisbury.^[6][7] Together, they had two sons:^[3][4] Stephen is an Anglican priest and chaplain,^[8] while Andrew is a classical scholar.^[9]

Laird's beliefs fell within the Prayer Book Catholic tradition of the Church of England.^[2]

Laird died on 11 May 2014, aged 81, following a terminal illness of two years. She was survived by her husband and sons.^[3]