Tracy Worcester

Biographical Information
Tracy, the Marchioness of Worcester, wiki "is an ecologist who campaigns for farmer's land rights and livelihoods in developing countries, and for local food markets in the UK. Aside from her duties as a Gaia Trustee, Tracy is Associate Director of the International Society for Ecology And Culture and is closely linked with Transport 2000 and the Soil Association, among other UK environmental organizations." She is a "former trustee of Friends of the Earth and trustee of the Gaia Foundation. She is founder of the Price of Progress Productions and her most recent film is Pig Business."

"Unconventional from an early age, she was expelled from school for thumping a teacher, was modelling in Paris by the time she was 17 and then became an actress (along with her sister Rachel) under her maiden name of Ward (Cat's Eyes and Miss Scarlett in the the short-lived Cluedo). When the acting roles began to dry up she was drawn to the ecological movement, partly through her friendship with the Goldsmith family who ran the Ecologist. In 1989 she started working for Friends of the Earth - 'It gave me something to do - stuffing envelopes, sticking on stamps - and it all started from there.'.."

"Establishment veritably reeks from her pores. She is married to the Marquis of Worcester, who will one day inherit the 52,000-acre Badminton estate in Gloucestershire from his father, the Duke of Beaufort.... The daughter of the Hon Peter Ward, a younger son of the third Earl of Dudley, Worcester was sent to boarding school at a young age and hated it so much that she was expelled from several of them."

Her eco-hero is Prince Charles (who also attended her wedding).


 * Former Advisory Board, The Ecologist Magazine
 * Trustee, Bath Environment Centre
 * Former member, Referendum Party

Education
Writing in the Telegraph in 2001 she noted:


 * "In an ideal world, my children would have a very different education. The Rudolf Steiner system, for example, teaches children to understand the inter-connectedness of life, and subjects are taught while working closely with the local community and environment. The development of the child's imagination is given priority over incessant facts and figures.


 * "But the reality is that alternative schools are marginalised; their values are at odds with those of the culture around them. They are therefore under-funded and not widely accessible. Consequently, I decided to support my husband and send my children to private school and let them decide for themselves whether to accept or reject the corporate world view..."