Jane Ewart-Biggs, Baroness Ewart-Biggs

Felicity Jane Ewart-Biggs (* 22. August 1929 , † 8. October 1992 in Fulham , London ) was a British politician of the Labor Party . Since 1981 she was a Life Peeress member of the House of Lords .

Life

Ewart-Biggs was born in British India to Major Basil Fitz-Herbert Randall and his wife, Rena Rendall. Her family belonged to the British middle class; her father was an officer in the British Indian Army and died when she was a few months old. She also had an older brother who, like his father, also became an officer. After the death of her father, Ewart-Biggs returned to Great Britain with her mother. She attended Downe House School in Cold Ash near Newbury in Berkshire and graduated from secretarial school. She then worked as a secretary at the British Foreign Office and the British Embassy in Bonn , and later also at the Savoy Hotel .

In May 1960 she married the British diplomat Christopher Ewart-Biggs (1921–1976). The marriage had three children, a son and two daughters. Christopher Wart-Biggs became the British Ambassador to Ireland in July 1976 . After only 12 days in office, he was on 21 July 1976 by a landmine attack the IRA on his car outside Dublin killed near his home. Ewart-Biggs found out about his death on the radio . She was driving her car from Liverpool to London and was level with Birdcage Walk in London when she heard the news of her death. In the following years she joined the Irish peace movement, which had been initiated by Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams . She set up a memorial foundation for her husband to promote peace and reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland; the foundation annually awards the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize .

Among other things, she organized a peace march in London and gave a high-profile speech in Trafalgar Square . In her two books Pay, Pack and Follow (1984) and Lady in the Lords (1988), she described her personal and political path after the death of her husband.

1991 at Ewart-Biggs cancer diagnosed. In September 1992 she married her long-time partner, the consulting engineer Kevin Patrick O'Sullivan, as a second marriage. Three weeks later, in October 1992, Ewart-Biggs died at Charing Cross Hospital in London, according to her family, of complications from her cancer.

politics

After the death of her husband Christopher Ewart-Biggs, Jane Ewart-Biggs' interest in politics grew and she became a member of the Labor Party. The Labor Party leadership and selection committees, however, were skeptical due to their lack of political experience and knowledge of constitutional law. Ewart-Biggs received only modest political support from her party. She ran unsuccessfully for the European Parliament and for the Greater London Council .

After the death of her husband, Ewart-Biggs worked as a freelance journalist and broadcaster.

Since 1984 she was president ( President ) of the British section ( British committee ) of the United Nations Children's Fund . Since received an honorary doctorate (Hon DLitt) from the New University of Ulster .

Membership in the House of Lords

On May 22, 1981, Ewart-Biggs was named a Life Peer and became a member of the House of Lords ; she was entitled Baroness Ewart-Biggs , of Ellis Green in the County of Essex . In the House of Lords she sat for the Labor Party, according to sources other than Crossbencher . She was one of the so-called working peers and was actively involved in the House of Lords. On June 3, 1981, it was officially introduced into the House of Lords. She gave her inaugural address on June 17, 1981; she spoke about the relationship and legal relations between Great Britain and the European Economic Community .

In Hansard , contributions by Jane Ewart-Biggs in the House of Lords from 1981 to 1992 are documented. She spoke in the House of Lords on topics such as domestic politics , European politics and, time and again, the relationship between Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland ; she was also a member of several committees. Geographically, her areas of interest also included Africa and the Far East , as well as the subjects of poverty , hunger and oppression.

In 1983, she became a spokeswoman for the Labor group on the thematic priority domestic policy ( front-bench Spokesman on Home Affairs appointed); In 1987 she was also additionally spokeswoman for the Labor Group for the issues of consumer protection and development aid ( consumer affairs and Overseas development ). In 1988 she became the opposition whip . Despite her cancer, Ewart-Biggs continued to take an active part in meetings of the House of Lords; she was recently dependent on a wheelchair . In March 1992, she spoke for the last time in the House of Lords in a debate on criminal law policy ( Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill ).

Her last public appearances included attending the House of Lords summer party; there there was also another encounter with Neil Kinnock .

Her party friend Alma Birk, Baroness Birk , with whom she had shared an office in the House of Lords, also wrote the obituary for Jane Ewart-Biggs in the British newspaper The Independent . Birk described Ewart-Biggs as "prudent, helpful, and endowed with a sense of humor"; Ewart-Biggs was a "popular and highly respected member of the House of Lords", "especially loved by the group of Labor peers".

Web links

• Jane Ewart-Biggs at Hansard (English)
• Alma Birk : Baroness Ewart-Biggs - Obituary in: The Independent, October 9, 1992
• Baroness Ewart-Biggs, Peace Campaigner, 63 - Obituary in New York Times, October 10, 1992

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Baroness Ewart-Biggs ; Obituary in: The Independent, October 9, 1992
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Baroness Ewart-Biggs, Peace Campaigner, 63 ; Obituary in: New York Times, October 10, 1992
3. ^ Crown Office in London Gazette , Issue 48622, Page 7303, May 28, 1981
4. ^ Former women members of the House of Lords Official website of the Center before Advancement of Women in Politics ; Retrieved November 8, 2013
5. ^ EEC: United Kingdom Membership Advantages Text of the speech of June 17, 1981