Isobel Cripps

Who was Isobel Cripps?

Dame Isobel Cripps, GBE, also known as Lady Cripps, was a British overseas aid organiser and the wife of Sir Stafford Cripps.

Born as Isobel Swithinbank at Denham, Buckinghamshire, she was the second daughter and the youngest of three children of Commander Harold William Swithinbank, DL, a landowner of Denham Court, and his wife, Amy, the daughter of James Crossley Eno, inventor of Eno fruit salts. She was educated privately and at the Heathfield School, near Ascot.

Swithinbank met Stafford Cripps in January 1910. His father, Charles Cripps, was standing in the Conservative interest for Wycombe, with Stafford supporting his father's candidature; among the campaign helpers was Isobel. The pair corresponded and she visited the Cripps home at Parmoor. The following year, both were members of a family party which went to the winter sports in Switzerland and they soon became engaged. The couple married on 12 July 1911 at Denham parish church.