PM Boris Johnson's mother Charlotte Johnson Wahl has died aged 79.
Boris Johnson's beloved mother Charlotte Johnson Wahl has died aged 79.
The Prime Minister's mother, who worked as a painter, died “suddenly and peacefully” at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, on Monday according to a death notice in The Times.
It comes a week after Boris Johnson spent time with the Queen up in Balmoral.
Charlotte Johnson Wahl was only 40 when she was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and she quietly campaigned for improved treatments for the disease.
The death notice reads, "Painter. Mother of Alexander, Rachel, Leo, and Joseph; grandmother of Ludovic, Lara, Charlotte, Milo, Oliver, Cassia, Theodore, Rose, Lula, William, Ruby Noor, Stephanie and Wilfred”.
Boris, who is expecting his second child with his wife Carrie, has two brothers Leo, 53, and Jo, 49, and sister Rachel, 56, once praised his mother for being the “supreme authority” in the family and credited her with instilling in him the equal value of every human life.
Boris Johnson and Carrie already share son Wilfred, who they welcomed in April 2020.
In sending the Prime Minister his condolences, Labour leader Kier Starmer tweeted, 'I’m very sorry to learn of the prime minister’s loss. My condolences to him and his family'
Meanwhile, Tory MP Conor Burns said, 'So sad to hear of the death of Boris Johnson’s mum. Thoughts and prayers are with him and the whole of the Johnson clan'.
Fellow Conservative Angela Richardson added, 'Sad news for the PM tonight as well as the rest of the Johnson family. Thoughts with them all'.
Conservative Party co-chair Amanda Milling tweeted, 'Thinking of Boris Johnson and his family this evening. Our thoughts and prayers are with you'.
Charlotte Johnson Wahl studied English at Oxford University but she took some time out to travel to America with Stanley Johnson - who she married in 1963 before returning to complete her degree and became the first married female undergraduate at Lady Margaret Hall.
The couple had four children before they divorced in 1979. And in 1988, she married the American professor Nicholas Wahl and moved to New York where she began painting cityscapes – which were the subject of a sell-out exhibition in 2004 but she returned to London following his death in 1996.
Having worked as an artist, Ms Johnson Wahl made her name as a portrait painter, having painted Joanna Lumley and Jilly Cooper to name but a few.
She was the daughter of the barrister Sir James Fawcett, who was president of the European Commission for Human Rights in the 1970s.
