Joan Helen Vickers, Baroness Vickers,
DBE (3 June 1907 – 23 May 1994) was a British
National Liberal
National liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal policies and issues with elements of nationalism. Historically, national liberalism has also been used in the same meaning as conservative liberalism (right-liberalism).
A seri ...
and later
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.
Early life
Vickers was born in London on 3 June 1907, the eldest daughter of (Horace) Cecil Vickers (1882-1944), a stockbroker, and his wife, Lilian Munro Lambert Grose
(1880-1923), a social worker, only daughter of Woodman Cole Grose, MBE, a civil servant. Her father's family came originally from Lincolnshire and her mother's from Cornwall.
Her father joined ''Nelke, Phillips & Bendix'', a London stockbroking firm who counted Edward VII as one of their clients. He was elected to the Stock Exchange on 25 March 1904 and became one of their partners at their office at 4 Moorgate Street. In 1917 he set up his own firm, Vickers, da Costa, which counted Sir
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
among their clients. Her brother, Ralph Vickers was later Senior Partner of the firm.
Vickers was educated at St Monica's,
Burgh Heath
__NOTOC__
Burgh Heath ( or, especially amongst older residents, ) is a residential neighbourhood with a remnant part of the Banstead Commons of the same name. Immediately north of Upper Kingswood on the A217 road, it adjoins part of Banstead t ...
,
Surrey,
and in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. She was trained as a Norland Nurse, working in the Margaret Macdonald and Mary Middleton Hospital,
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Ma ...
and was active in politics in Battersea and Islington. She was presented at court by Mrs Winston Churchill in 1926. She hunted in
Leicestershire, rode horses for the
Irish Free State Army to ladies classes and competed in the Dublin Horse Show as a jumper. She served with the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
in
South East Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
and was area welfare officer of the Social Welfare Department in
Malaya. She was later chairman of the Anglo-
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
n Society. She served as a
London County Council
London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...
lor 1937–45 and was UK delegate to the Status of Women Commission of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
.
Politics
Seeking a career in politics, she went to see Winston Churchill at Chartwell. He told her he deeply disapproved of women in politics but advised her to wear a pretty hat and join the London County Council. In 1936 she was elected a Member of the Ladies' Grand Council of the Primrose League.
In 1937 she was elected to the London County Council, representing the Norwood division of Lambeth, and serving until 1945. In 1939 she was nominated by the British Red Cross to serve as Divisional Secretary, Lambeth Division, and in 1940 similarly for Southwark. However, during the war, she was often abroad, repatriating prisoners of war.
Overseas
Vickers worked for 14 months with the Red Cross in Indonesia, four years in British Malaya (now Malaysia) as a Social Welfare Area Officer in Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Johore. She was nominated a member of the Legislative Council in Negri Sembilan. She was a founder member of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, and started the work in Malaysia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Kenya.
More specifically, in August 1945, she signed up to serve as Chief Welfare Officer,
S.E.A.C. with the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John. In September 1945 she arrived with six other women in Batavia, primarily to help British troops but working not only in British hospitals but also in Dutch, Indonesian and Chinese hospitals. She left in November 1946, having given great help to troops and medical units. The Dutch Red Cross were most appreciative and she was awarded the Netherlands Red Cross Order of Merit (1946). She was appointed
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
(1946). From there she went to Malaya where she served as Area Welfare Officer, Department of Social Service from January 1947 to May 1948. She visited Singapore, New Zealand and Australia in the summer of 1948.
Vickers, the only known female National Liberal politician nationally, unsuccessfully contested
South Poplar at 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 ...
. At the
1955 general election she was elected as the
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
Plymouth Devonport, defeating the Labour candidate,
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...
, by 100 votes. She defeated him again in
1959
Events January
* January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance.
* January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...
by the greatly increased majority of 6,454. Her seat was always marginal, but she held it in the
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...
,
1966 and
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
elections.
She was considered a dedicated constituency MP, taking a house in Devonport, travelling to and from the constituency every weekend and holding regular surgeries. She never became a Minister, possibly because she always voted on conscience rather than following the whip. She was appointed DBE in 1964. During her years as an MP, she not only addressed numerous women's issues, but also spoke on defence issues and was a zealous supporter of the Commonwealth, always keen to entertain visiting parliamentarians, parliamentary clerks from abroad, and overseas students.
She was a UK delegate to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, and the Western European Union from 1967 to 1974. Every year she was elected by all parties to a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. She sat on the UK COSA Committee. She was a working member of the International Friendship League. In her life as an MP, she visited all the major Commonwealth countries for conferences, and most of the Caribbean countries, including Guyana and Belize, as well as Fiji, Tonga and Ceylon. She was on the committee of the London Centre, to which members came from India and Jamaica.
She sat until the
February 1974 general election when she was defeated by
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
David Owen.
Peerage
She was created a
life peer, as Baroness Vickers, of
Devonport in the
County of Devon on 27 January 1975.
Arms
Fish named in her honor
It's unusual for a politician to have a fish named after them.
* ''
Rasbora johannae''
Siebert & Guiry, 1996 is named after her.
References
*
*
External links
*
Obituary in ''The Independent''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vickers, Joan
1907 births
1994 deaths
Members of London County Council
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II
Conservative Party (UK) life peers
Vickers, Joan Vickers, Baroness
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Devon
National Liberal Party (UK, 1931) politicians
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
Politicians from Plymouth, Devon
Women councillors in England