Leah L'Estrange Malone (1886 – 4 September 1951) was a British politician.

Biography

She was born in London as Leah Klingenstein, to Arthur Klingenstein and Regina Klingenstein (née Schubach): her family changed their surname to "Kay" while she was still a child. She had an older brother, Sidney, an older sister, Noëmi, and a younger brother Gilbert who died in childhood. She completed a degree in modern history in 1904 at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

, before becoming an inspector with the Ministry of Health, then in 1917 became the secretary to Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, Member of Parliament for

Nottingham South Nottingham South is a constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, represented since 2010 by Lilian Greenwood of the Labour Party. Members of Parliament Since 2010, the seat has been represented by Lilian Greenwood, who succeede ...

. While working for Cavendish-Bentinck, she met Cecil Malone, Member of Parliament for Leyton East and the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

's first MP. She and Malone married in 1921.Law, Cheryl. ''Women: A Modern Political Dictionary'', p.94.

I.B. Tauris I.B. Tauris is an educational publishing house and imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It was an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York City until its purchase in May 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing. It specialises in non- ...

, 2000. The L'Estrange Malones soon left the Communist Party and joined the Labour Party. In 1923, Leah became the first female chair of Poale Zion in the UK. In 1924, along with

Frida Laski Frida Kerry Laski (6 August 1884 – 31 July 1977) was a British suffragist, birth control advocate and eugenicist. Born in Suffolk, England, Winifred Mary (Frida) Kerry, the daughter of Francis John Kerry of Acton Hall, Suffolk, a member of t ...

Dora Russell Dora, Countess Russell (née Black; 3 April 1894 – 31 May 1986) was a British author, a feminist and socialist campaigner, and the second wife of the philosopher Bertrand Russell. She was a campaigner for contraception and peace. She worked ...

and

Dorothy Jewson Dorothea Jewson (17 August 1884 – 29 February 1964), better known as Dorothy Jewson, was a British teacher, trade union organiser, Labour Party politician, and one of her party's first female Members of Parliament. Whilst at Girton College, Ca ...

she cofounded the Workers' Birth Control Group, which provided advice on birth control to working-class women. She worked with Dora Russell to successfully persuade the party to adopt a policy of making access to

birth control Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...

easier. In 1934, she was elected to the

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 ...

, representing West Fulham, and in 1937 she was made an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

. During her time on the council she served on various committees, including a period chairing the

Public Assistance Committee A Public Assistance Committee (PAC), in the UK, was a body locally created after the abolition of the boards of guardians in 1930 by the Local Government Act 1929, when their powers and responsibilities for poor relief were passed to county and co ...

. L'Estrange Malone died in 1951, while on holiday in Italy. She is buried at the Cimitero Monumentale di Staglieno in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

References

External links

Photograph of Leah L'Estrange Malone's grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:L'Estrange Malone, Leah 1886 births 1951 deaths 19th-century British Jews 20th-century English Jews Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford British birth control activists British women's rights activists British Zionists Burials in Italy Communist Party of Great Britain members First women admitted to degrees at Oxford Jewish women politicians Labour Party (UK) councillors Members of London County Council Women councillors in England Politicians from London

Biography

Further reading

References

External links