The Rt Hon. Dame Dehra S. Parker,
GBE,
PC (NI)
PC or pc may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Player character or playable character, a fictional character controlled by a human player, usually in role-playing games or computer games
* ''Port Charles'', an American daytime TV soap opera
* ...
(13 August 1882 β 30 November 1963), was the longest serving female MP in the
House of Commons of Northern Ireland
The House of Commons of Northern Ireland was the lower house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland created under the '' Government of Ireland Act 1920''. The upper house in the bicameral parliament was called the Senate. It was abolished w ...
.
Family life
Dehra Kerr-Fisher was born in a military hospital in
Dehra Dun
Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislativ ...
, north of
Delhi, India
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
, in 1882, the only child of James Kerr-Fisher and his wife Annie. Her father, a native of
Kilrea
Kilrea ( , ) is a village, townland and civil parish in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It gets its name from the ancient church that was located near to where the current Church of Ireland is located on Church Street looking over the tow ...
,
County Londonderry, was a successful financier.
[The Stormont Papers](_blank)
/ref> She was educated in the United States, where her father held extensive property holdings, and in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] The surname has been spelled, alternatively, as Ker-Fisher or Ker Fisher.
Marriages
She was married twice. Her first husband was Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Peel Dawson Spencer Chichester, MP (d.1921), with whom she had one son and one daughter, Robert James Spencer Chichester (1902β1920) and Marion Caroline Dehra Chichester (1904β1976). She was predeceased by her son. On 4 June 1928 she married her second husband, Admiral Henry Wise Parker ( CB, CMG).
Political career
Dame Dehra was first elected as a Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for Londonderry, as Dehra Chichester (as she was known prior to her second marriage in 1928), in the 1921 Northern Ireland general election. She stood down at the 1929 election just before her second marriage but was elected unopposed as Dehra Parker in the 15 March 1933 by-election for the South Londonderry constituency following the death of her son-in-law James Lenox-Conyngham Chichester-Clark, and served until her resignation on 15 June 1960. Her grandson, James Chichester-Clark
James Dawson Chichester-Clark, Baron Moyola, PC, DL (12 February 1923 β 17 May 2002) was the penultimate Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and eighth leader of the Ulster Unionist Party between 1969 and March 1971. He was Member of the N ...
, was elected unopposed at the subsequent by-election. He later served as the fifth Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
The prime minister of Northern Ireland was the head of the Government of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. No such office was provided for in the Government of Ireland Act 1920; however, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as with governo ...
from 1969 to 1971.
From her re-election in 1933 until her retirement in 1960, she faced opposition only once. During the 1949 Northern Ireland General Election, with anti-partition agitation a common theme across the region, she was opposed in South Londonderry by a Nationalist Party candidate, T.B. Agnew, whom she defeated. She was a Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
from 1 December 1937 to 15 March 1944. She was also Chair of the Northern Ireland General Health Services Board from 1948 to 1949. She served as Minister of Health and Local Government from 26 August 1949 to 13 March 1957 and became a member of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland
The Privy Council of Northern Ireland is a formal body of advisors to the sovereign and was a vehicle for the monarch's prerogative powers in Northern Ireland. It was modelled on the Privy Council of Ireland.
The council was created in 1922 as ...
in 1949. She was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1949 Birthday honours "for public services", having previously been appointed as an OBE, and was advanced to be a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(GBE) in 1957.
Her promotion to the Cabinet at the age of 67 under Sir Basil Brooke (later created The 1st Viscount Brookeborough) was part of his so-called 'reforming' premiership; his predecessor having been criticised for appointing elderly members to Cabinet. She was the first woman to serve in the Northern Ireland Cabinet.
Extra-Parliamentary activities
Outside of parliamentary activities, Dame Dehra was a long-serving local councillor on Magherafelt
Magherafelt (, mΛ axΙΙΎΚ²ΙΛfΚ²iΛltΜͺΛ Ι is a small town and civil parish in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 8,805 at the 2011 Census. It is the biggest town in the south of the county and is the social, econo ...
Rural District Council
Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the a ...
, president of both the ''Northern Ireland Physical Training Association'' and the ''Girls' Training Corps'', and chairman of the ''Ancient Monuments Advisory Committee''. In 1944, Parker was appointed senior vice-chairman of the ''Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts'' (CEMA NI), and in 1949 she succeeded Sir David Lindsay Keir as President for CEMA, a position she held until 1960. Parker was made an honorary member of the Ulster Society of Women Artists
The Ulster Society of Women Artists was founded in 1957 by Gladys Maccabe with the assistance of Olive Henry and others, as there were no arts societies in Northern Ireland that would accept female members. The society aims to"promote and encourag ...
in 1958.
Later life
She died at her home, Shanemullagh House, Castledawson
Castledawson is a village in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is mostly within the townland of Shanemullagh (, IPA: anΛ ΛΚanΛ ΛwΚlΜͺΛ Ιx, about four miles from the north-western shore of Lough Neagh, and near the market town of Mag ...
, in the south of County Londonderry, on 28 November 1963, at age 81. She was interred two days later in the grounds of Christ Church, Castledawson.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Dehra
1882 births
1963 deaths
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland
Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1921β1925
Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1925β1929
Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1933β1938
Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1938β1945
Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1945β1949
Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1949β1953
Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1953β1958
Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1958β1962
Northern Ireland junior government ministers (Parliament of Northern Ireland)
Members of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland
Women members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland
Politicians from Dehradun
Politicians from County Londonderry
Dehra
Dera, Dero, Daro, Dhoro, Dahar or Dehra is a word in several languages of South Asia, whose meaning is ' camp', 'mound' or 'settlement'. It appears in the names of a number of places.
Geography India
* Dera, Himachal Pradesh
* Dera Bassi, Moh ...
Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for County Londonderry constituencies
Northern Ireland Cabinet ministers (Parliament of Northern Ireland)
Irish people in colonial India