Irene Mary Bewick Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, (23 February 1895 – 26 April 1980) was a British
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
politician. She was a long-serving female
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), the longest serving female Conservative MP in history. She later became a
life peeress in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
, and had served a total of 43 years in Parliament.
Career
Ward was educated privately and at Newcastle Church High School. She contested
Morpeth
Morpeth may refer to:
*Morpeth, New South Wales, Australia
** Electoral district of Morpeth, a former electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in New South Wales
* Morpeth, Ontario, Canada
* Morpeth, Northumberland, England, UK
** Morpeth (UK ...
in 1924 and 1929 without success and was elected to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
in 1931 for
Wallsend
Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne.
History Roman Wallsend
In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of Segedunum. This f ...
, defeating
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
's
Margaret Bondfield
Margaret Grace Bondfield (17 March 1873 – 16 June 1953) was a British Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor in th ...
. A strong advocate for
Tyneside
Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt.
The population of Tyneside as publishe ...
industry and social conditions, she lost her seat in the
1945 general election
The following elections occurred in the year 1945.
Africa
* 1945 South-West African legislative election
Asia
* 1945 Indian general election
Australia
* 1945 Fremantle by-election
Europe
* 1945 Albanian parliamentary election
* 1945 Bulgarian ...
, 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. She also campaigned for Equal Pay for women in general, and for
Florence 'Jean' Winder, the only woman reporter for ''Hansard'', in particular.
Ward worked with
Charlotte Bentley
Charlotte Eliza Bentley MBE (5 December 1915 – 20 March 1996) was a British nurse and nursing activist. She raised the status of nurses as part of the British nursing history. She had them established as students during training and establis ...
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.
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 for being a fierce character in the House of Commons who was not shy of argument, openly expressing strong disagreements with ministers in her own party when she felt it necessary. 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." Another incident took place in 1968 when the Labour government started passing large amounts of important legislation by making the House sit into the early hours of morning and making several
bill committees sit simultaneously. During a
division
Division or divider may refer to:
Mathematics
*Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication
*Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division
Military
*Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...
, Ward stood in front of the
mace to prevent the tellers from giving the result on a finance bill. She furiously remarked to the Speaker that "Parliament is turning into a dictatorship, and I protest about it." Ward refused to relent and was escorted out the chamber by the
serjeant-at-arms. She quipped: "Do you want my right or my left arm?"
Ward retired from the Commons in February 1974, having served a total of almost 38 years. She was the longest-serving female MP until that record was broken by
Gwyneth Dunwoody
Gwyneth Patricia Dunwoody (née Phillips; 12 December 1930 – 17 April 2008) was a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Exeter from 1966 to 1970, and then for Crewe (later Crewe and Nantwich) from February ...
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.
Honours
She was created a
life peer as Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, of
North Tyneside
North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It forms part of the greater Tyneside conurbation. North Tyneside Council is headquartered at Cobalt Park, Wallsend.
North Tyneside is bordered ...
in the County of
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newc ...
, on 23 January 1975.
Ward was appointed a
Commander 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 ...
(CBE) in 1929 and promoted to
Dame Commander
Commander ( it, Commendatore; french: Commandeur; german: Komtur; es, Comendador; pt, Comendador), or Knight Commander, is a title of honor prevalent in chivalric orders and fraternal orders.
The title of Commander occurred in the medieval mil ...
(DBE) in 1955, and was appointed a
Companion of Honour in 1973.
See also
*
Women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
The representation of women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has been an issue in the politics of the United Kingdom at numerous points in the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally debate centred on whether women should be allowed to v ...
References
External links
*
Catalogue of the papers of Irene Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, 1860-1980Irene Ward on the UK Parliament website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Irene
1895 births
1980 deaths
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour
People from Tynemouth
Politicians from Tyne and Wear
People from Wallsend
Place of death missing
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
UK MPs who were granted peerages
20th-century British women politicians
20th-century English women
20th-century English people