Irene Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside

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Irene Mary Bewick Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside , CBE , DBE (born February 23, 1895 - April 26, 1980 in London ) was a British politician with the Conservative Party . Since 1975 she was a Life Peeress member of the House of Lords .

Life

Ward was born the daughter of the architect Alfred J. Bewick Ward and his wife Elvira Mary Ward. Her father died when she was a child. Her childhood and youth were marked by poverty . Ward grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne ; there she attended Newcastle Church High School.

In 1923 she made the first attempt to run for the Conservative Party in the constituency of Wansbeck in Northumberland ; however, she had to withdraw her application because the party committees did not want a female candidate. In the British general election in 1924 and the British general election in 1929 , she stood for the Conservative Party in the constituency of Morpeth , but unsuccessfully. During these years she volunteered for the Conservative Party.

In the British general election in 1931 she was elected to the House of Commons for the constituency of Wallsend ; they defeated the candidate of the choice Labor Party , Margaret Bond Field . As a member of the House of Commons, she campaigned for the economy in Tyneside in particular ; Mining and shipbuilding became her political focus in her constituency. In her constituency she was particularly committed to improving social conditions there; the poverty and harsh living conditions of their electorate shaped Ward's political thinking and action. She gave her inaugural address in the House of Commons in May 1932 as part of the debate on the Coal Mines Bill ; She criticized the government for the failure to set minimum wages for miners.

In 1935 she voted in the British House of Commons together with Nancy Astor and Eleanor Rathbone for the Government of India Act , which granted Indian women more constitutional rights. In 1937 she supported the Poor Law (Amendment) Bill in the British House of Commons , a law that provided pocket money for people in retirement homes and in government institutions. In 1941, she was chairman of Nancy Astor and Caroline Haslett launched Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Association ; During the Second World War , the association met in Astor's house, among other things, to advise and monitor the war effort of women. Ward also spoke up in the House of Commons in January and March 1941 in debates on women taking up employment in wartime. In 1941 State Secretary Gwilym appointed Lloyd George Ward to the Women's Consultative Committee (WCC); she was to become his personal political advisor. In the British general election in 1945 , when the Labor Party won a landslide, she lost her seat in parliament.

In the British general election in 1950 Ward returned to the House of Commons for the constituency of Tynemouth ; she defeated the previous incumbent, Grace Colman in the election . Ward was one of the active backbenchers in the House of Commons. She campaigned for equal pay, advocated low-income retirees, and supported the Deserted Wives Bill (1951). In the House of Commons, she took the UK Prime Minister's temporarily vacant seat on one occasion . When asked to leave the square, Ward said she was demonstrating peacefully for the rights of retirees. In 1952, in a letter to the Times newspaper, she criticized her party for failing to select and nominate a sufficient number of future female parliamentary candidates ( Prospective parliamentary candidate ; PPC). In 1953 she introduced the Rights of Entry (Gas and Electricity Boards) Act into Parliament as a Private Member Bill . She voted for the Nurses (Amendment) Act (April 1960) and the Penalties for Drunkenness Act (1962).

In February 1974 Ward gave up her active political career and voluntarily resigned from the House of Commons. She had held a seat in parliament for the Conservative Party for almost 35 years. She was the senior parliamentarian of the House of Commons, the so-called " Mother of the House "; her record was only set in 2007 by Gwyneth Dunwoody . When she left, at the age of 79, she was the oldest member of the House of Commons.

In 1949 she was appointed peace judge for the judicial district of Newcastle upon Tyne. Ward was an Honorary Member of the Board of Directors of the National Commission for Women (NCW). Since 1964 she was a member of the Public Accounts Committee . She was also an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cambridge's Lucy Cavendish College .

Ward was unmarried. Your estate (diaries, letters, photographs, etc.) is kept in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford . The letter in which Ward in 1975. Margaret Thatcher personally congratulated on her election as party leader of the Conservative Party, is located in the estate Thatcher in Churchill College of the University of Cambridge .

Membership in the House of Lords

On January 23, 1975, Ward was made a Life Peeress and became a member of the House of Lords ; she was named Baroness Ward of North Tyneside , of North Tyneside in the County of Tyne and Weir. In the House of Lords she sat for the Conservative Party.

Awards

Ward was named Commander in 1929 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1955 . In 1973 she was awarded the British Companion of Honor .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Roland Turner, Janet Podell: Baroness Ward of North Tyneside Obituary in: Annual Obituary (1980), pp. 252/253. In contrast to all other sources, 1894 is given as the year of birth and the place of birth is London .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Cheryl Law: Woman, A Modern Political Dictionary , 2000, p. 152/153, ISBN 1-86064-502-X
  3. ↑ a b c d e Irene Ward (Baroness Ward of North Tyneside) ; Curriculum vitae (official website of the Center for Advancement of Women in Politics ); Retrieved November 12, 2013
  4. ↑ COAL MINES BILL text of the speech of May 30, 1932
  5. ^ Catalog of the papers of Irene Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, 1860-1980 list of the papers of the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford ; Retrieved November 12, 2013
  6. ^ The Papers of Baroness Thatcher LG., OM., FRS. Janus; Retrieved November 12, 2013
  7. ↑ Dame Irene Mary Bewick Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside on thepeerage.com , accessed September 13, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Ward, Irene, Baroness Ward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ward, Irene, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside; Ward, Irene Mary (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Conservative Party politician, Member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1895
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 1980
Place of death London