Jennifer Mary Tolhurst (born 1951) is the current Lord-Lieutenant of Essex.

Tolhurst started the Danbury and Little Baddow branch of the NSPCC and chaired the Prince's Youth Business Trust in Essex.

She remains vice-president of the Essex Community Foundation, serves on Essex University Court, is an assessor for the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service and is vice-chairman of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee.

She succeeded Lord Petre, 18th Baron of the Petre family, whose ancestral family home is at Ingatestone Hall, who had been the lord-lieutenant of Essex for the previous fifteen years but stood down after turning 75 – the customary age of retirement for the Sovereign's representatives.

This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence v3.0: Prime Minister's Office (22 June 2017).