Alma Birk

The Right Honourable The Baroness Birk
Personal details
Born	Alma Lillian Wilson 22 September 1917(1917-09-22) Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK
Died	29 December 1996(1996-12-29) (aged 79) Westminster, England, UK
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Occupation	Politician

Alma Lillian Birk, Baroness Birk (née Wilson; 22 September 1917 – 29 December 1996) was a British Labour Party politician and Government minister.

Birk was educated at South Hampstead High School and at the London School of Economics. After failing to gain a seat on Salisbury City Council, she gained a seat on Finchley Borough Council and served as leader of the Labour Group between 1950 and 1953.

She unsuccessfully stood as a Labour Party candidate to become a Member of Parliament on three occasions; for Ruislip-Northwood in the 1950 general election, and for Portsmouth West in the 1951 and 1955 general elections.

Birk was created a life peer as Baroness Birk, of Regent's Park in Greater London, on 15 September 1967, and served as a Baroness in Waiting between March and October 1974. From 1974 to 1979 she was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of the Environment, and then became Minister of State in the Privy Council Office in 1979. In opposition, she spoke in the House of Lords on the environment between 1979 and 1986, and on arts, libraries, heritage and broadcasting between 1986 and 1993.

She was Chairman of Redbridge Jewish Youth Centre between 1970 and 1996 and on the Executive of the Council of Christians and Jews between 1971 and 1977.

Family

She married newspaper executive Ellis Birk in 1939 and they had two children.

Sources

• Pottle, Mark (October 2008). "Birk , Alma Lillian, Baroness Birk (1917–1996)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/64015. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/64015. Retrieved 2009-05-29.  subscription or UK public library membership required