Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn PC, GCOT (6 October 1910 – 3 May 2002) was a British politician. She was born as Barbara Anne Betts in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. She grew up in Pontefract and Bradford, Yorkshire. She graduated from St Hugh's College, Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She adopted her family's politics, which were left wing. Castle joined the Labour Party. She was Member for Blackburn from 1945 to 1979. She was Minister of Transport from 23 December 1965 – 6 April 1968. She died in Chiltern, Buckinghamshire.