Alma Birk, Baroness Birk

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Alma Birk Birk Baroness, (* 22. September 1917 in Brighton , East Sussex , England ; † 29. December 1996 in Westminster , London ) was a British journalist and politician of the Labor Party . Since 1967 she was a Life Peeress member of the House of Lords .

Life

Birk was born Alma Lillian Wilson to Barnett Wilson (formerly Woolfson) and his wife Alice Wilson, nee Tosh. Her parents lived in Stamford Hill, London. She grew up in a middle-class family. Her parents ran a successful company that manufactured and sold greeting and greeting cards. She attended South Hampstead High School in the London borough of Hampstead . She studied at the London School of Economics (LSE). After graduating from LSE, she started working as a journalist. She initially wrote columns for the Labor Party's weekly newspaper Forward . She then became a columnist for the Daily Herald newspaper .

Birk, strongly influenced by socialism since her time at the LSE , was initially active as a politician in local politics. Since the late 1930s she has been involved in the Labor Party in the London borough of Finchley . During the Second World War , she ran unsuccessfully as a councilor for a seat on Salisbury City Council. From 1950 to 1953 she was a councilor in Finchley Borough Council, where she was chair of the Labor Group. For the Labor Party, she ran three unsuccessfully for a seat in the British House of Commons : in the British General Elections in 1950 for the constituency of Ruislip-Northwood , as well as in the British General Elections in 1951 , where she was narrowly defeated, and the British General Elections in 1955 for the constituency of Portsmouth West .

From 1965 to 1969 she was co-editor of the British women's magazine Nova .

From 1969 to 1972 she was President ( Chairman ) of the Health Education Council . She was vice-president ( vice-president ) of the Council of Children's Welfare (1968-1975), Chairman ( Chairman ) and Vice-President of Redbridge Jewish Youth Center (1970-1996) and board member of the Council of Christians and Jews (1971- 1977). She was also a member of the Holocaust Memorial Committee, a member of the Theaters' Trust, director of the British Film Institute , president of the Association of Art Institutions (1984–1996) and president of the Craft Arts Design Association (1984–1990).

Birk was a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS); at times she exercised the office of justice of the peace .

She was a supporter and supporter of the Fabian Society ; The intellectual orientation of the Fabian Society was a lifelong influence on Birk's thinking and acting.

Membership in the House of Lords

On September 13, 1967, Birk was named a Life Peer and became a member of the House of Lords ; she was called Baroness Birk , of Regent's Park in Greater London. She gave her inaugural address on November 29, 1967. In her inaugural address, she called for the probation service and the juvenile justice department to be strengthened in order to better combat juvenile delinquency . The penal system was one of their preferred political interests. Birk was a member of the Holloway Prison Visiting Service from 1967 to 1971 and a member of the Howard League for Penal Reform .

In the House of Lords she took over from March to October 1974 in her capacity as Parliamentary Secretary of the Labor Group (Government Whip) the honorary post of "Baroness-in-Waiting". From 1974 to 1979 she was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the British Department of the Environment. In 1979 she was briefly Minister of State in the Privy Council office .

Birk continued to be deeply involved in the House of Lords after the Labor Party was in opposition from 1979. She was initially the opposition spokesperson for the environment and environmental policy (1979–1986; Opposition frontbench spokesman on the environment ) and then for the subjects of art , libraries, monument protection and broadcasting (1986–1993; opposition frontbench spokesman arts libraries, heritage and broadcasting ). Birks paid particular attention to the last-mentioned topics; she described this as her "happiest time" in the House of Lords.

On March 19, 1996, she spoke for the last time on the Broadcasting Bill . Although seriously ill, she attended meetings of the House of Lords regularly until the end.

Private

On December 24, 1939, she married her husband, Ellis Samuel Birk, in the Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue . Ellis Birk was working as an office clerk for a solicitor at the time of the marriage . He later became a lawyer and newspaper editor. The marriage had two children, a son and a daughter.

Birk died on December 29, 1996 at her home at 34 Bryanston Square, Westminster of complications from longstanding breast cancer .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Lena Jeger : Obituary: Baroness Birk , in: The Independent from January 3, 1997
  2. ↑ a b c d Alma Lillian Birk, Baroness Birk on thepeerage.com , accessed September 11, 2016.
  3. ^ CRIME AND THE COMMUNITY Text of the speech of November 29, 1967
personal data
SURNAME Birk, Alma, Baroness Birk
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilson, Alma Lillian (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British journalist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Brighton , East Sussex, England, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1996
Place of death Westminster , London, England, United Kingdom