Ernest Fernyhough (24 December 1908 – 16 August 1993) was a British Labour Party politician who served 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 32 years.

Political career

Fernyhough worked for the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers from 1936 to 1947. In 1947, Fernyhough was elected

for the Labour stronghold of Jarrow in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

caused by the death of

Ellen Wilkinson Ellen Cicely Wilkinson (8 October 1891 – 6 February 1947) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Minister of Education from July 1945 until her death. Earlier in her career, as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jarrow, s ...

- and held the seat until he retired in 1979. Fernyhough was Parliamentary Private Secretary to

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Harold Wilson from 1964 and a junior minister for Employment and Productivity from 1967 to 1969. He was also a member of the Council of Europe from 1970 to 1973.

Personal life

In 1934, Fernyhough married Ethel Edwards, and the couple had two sons and a daughter. The oldest John Fernyhough died in June 2020 aged 82 and the youngest Margaret (Married surname Sutcliffe) is still currently alive, with youngest child Andy Sutcliffe . Ernest had 2 older brothers

References

* ''Times Guide to the House of Commons, October 1974'' *

External links

* 1908 births 1993 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister UK MPs 1945–1950 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 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub