Baroness Trumpington's 11 ballsiest and best quotes

Baroness Trumpington, a Bletchley Park code-breaker famed for flicking two fingers up at a fellow Tory peer, has died at the age of 96. 

The legendary Conservative, who only retired from the House of Lords last year, once opined that the one good thing about getting old was the opinions of others mattered less.

This approach might explain some, if not all, of her no-holds-barred remarks.

Here are 11 of our favourites...

1. On ageing

“You don’t give a damn about what you say. Other people’s opinions matter less — unless they’re medical.”

2. On flicking two fingers

...at former defence secretary Lord King of Bridgwater in 2011 after he suggested Second World War veterans - of which she was the last in the Lords - were growing "pretty old."

“It was entirely between him and me — I thought. I wasn’t conscious of there being television [cameras there]. I did that [she repeats the gesture with faux innocence] to his face. His family say he is famous now.”

3. On self defence

"If you are ever attacked in the street do not shout 'help!', shout 'Fire!' People adore fires and always come rushing. Nobody will come if you shout 'help'."

4.  On growing old disgracefully

"Is the noble Lord aware that, at the age of 80, there are very few pleasures left to me, but one of them is passive smoking?"

5. On her memoir, Coming Up Trumps

 "I don't understand all this excitement. I didn't write the damn book, and I haven't read it either."

6. On daring to contradict Thatcher

"I thought: if I'm not true to myself, I might as well not exist. Therefore, I'll say what I think and if that's wrong, she can sack me. We fought each other verbally and I would stick to my guns and she would provoke me on purpose, and that was useful to her. It meant she was ready for other opponents."

7. And why their relationship worked

 "In a funny way, she used me because I was never going to agree with her if I didn't agree with her and so arguing gave her somebody else's point of view."

8. On suggesting sheep detonate Falklands minefields

“My point was that you can put a sheep out of its misery and eat it. You can’t do that to a man.”

9. On the Isle of Ely (for which she sought to be a parliamentary candidate)

“A godforsaken bit of the world. Driving from Cambridge, there isn’t even a pub on the way. I was Mrs Barker then and they called me Baker all through the interview. At the end, they said: 'Why do you think you’re not in Parliament already?’ I said: 'Because of selection committees like you,’ and went out and burst into tears.”

10. On where she learnt to swear

"I used to go into the woods with the local boys and smoke cigarettes." 

11. On her fellow peers

"Their Lordships do go on and on, and it is quite unnecessary. I get very impatient."