Irene Ward
The Baroness Ward of North Tyneside | |
|---|---|
| File:Irene Ward.jpg | |
| Member of Parliament for Tynemouth | |
| In office 23 February 1950 – 28 February 1974 | |
| Preceded by | Grace Colman |
| Succeeded by | Neville Trotter |
| Member of Parliament for Wallsend | |
| In office 27 October 1931 – 4 July 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Margaret Bondfield |
| Succeeded by | John McKay |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 23 February 1895 |
| Died | 26 April 1980 (aged 85) |
| Political party | Conservative |
Irene Mary Bewick Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, CH, DBE (23 February 1895 – 26 April 1980) was a British Conservative politician. She was a long-serving female Member of Parliament (MP).
Career
Ward was educated privately and at Newcastle Church High School. She contested Morpeth in 1924 and 1929 without success and was elected to the House of Commons in 1931 for Wallsend, defeating Labour's Margaret Bondfield. A strong advocate for Tyneside industry and social conditions, she lost her seat in the 1945 general election, which Labour won by a landslide.
In 1950, Ward returned to Parliament for Tynemouth, again defeating a female incumbent, Grace Colman. An active backbencher, she introduced the bill that became the Rights of Entry (Gas and Electricity Boards) Act, 1954. She promoted a Bill to pay pocket money to the elderly living in institutions.
Ward worked with Charlotte Bentley who led the "National Association of State Enrolled Assistant Nurses". Her private member's bill passed through parliament to remove the demeaning word "assistant" from the State Enrolled Nurses's job title.[1] This was the Nurses (Amendment) Act, 1961 and the following year there followed the Penalties for Drunkenness Act, 1962. She served on the Public Accounts Committee from 1964.
She is remembered in some quarters for an incident which caused amusement on both sides of the House when she threatened to "poke" the then Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Having received an evasive answer to a parliamentary question, she responded with the words: "I will poke the Prime Minister. I will poke him until I get a response."[citation needed]
Ward retired from the Commons in February 1974, having served a total of almost 38 years. She was the longest-serving female MP (although she would not have been Mother of the House because there was always a longer continuously-serving sitting MP as a result of the gap in her tenure) until that record was broken by Gwyneth Dunwoody in 2007. Aged 79 at her retirement, Ward was at that time also the oldest-ever serving female Member of Parliament and the oldest-ever woman to be re-elected, records not broken until Ann Clwyd achieved both in 2017.[citation needed]
Honours
She was created a life peer as Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, of North Tyneside in the County of Tyne and Wear, on 23 January 1975.[2]
Ward was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1929[3] and promoted to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1955,[4] and was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1973.[5]
See also
References
- ^ "Bentley, Charlotte Eliza (1915–1996), nurse and nursing activist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/62073. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ "No. 46479". The London Gazette. 28 January 1975. p. 1231.
- ^ "No. 33501". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1929. p. 3675.
- ^ "No. 40497". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 June 1955. p. 3267.
- ^ "No. 45984". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1973. p. 6494.
External links
- 1895 births
- 1980 deaths
- Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
- Female life peers
- Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour
- People from Tynemouth
- People from Wallsend
- UK MPs 1931–1935
- UK MPs 1935–1945
- UK MPs 1950–1951
- UK MPs 1951–1955
- UK MPs 1955–1959
- UK MPs 1959–1964
- UK MPs 1964–1966
- UK MPs 1966–1970
- UK MPs 1970–1974
- 20th-century British women politicians