Patricia Ford, Lady Fisher ( Smiles; 5 April 1921 – 23 May 1995), was briefly an Ulster Unionist Party politician in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. She was the first woman Member of Parliament from Northern Ireland, and the second woman to be returned to a seat in Westminster from a constituency on the island of Ireland (the first to take her seat).

Early life

She was born at

Donaghadee Donaghadee ( , ) is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the northeast coast of the Ards Peninsula, about east of Belfast and about six miles (10 km) south east of Bangor. It is in the civil parish of Donaghadee and ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to th ...

, and educated at Bangor Collegiate School,

Glendower Preparatory School Glendower Prep School is an independent preparatory school in South Kensington, London for girls aged 4 to 11. History Glendower Prep was founded in 1895 by Miss Lloyd and Miss Cornwall at 103A Fulham Road and was originally called "Cornwall an ...

, London, and abroad. Her father was Ulster Unionist MP Sir Walter D. Smiles and her mother, Margaret Heigway.

Career

Ford returned from living in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...

upon her father's death in the disaster in January 1953 and was returned unopposed to Parliament from his North Down constituency. In her maiden speech to the House she was required to apologise for an article she had written in the '' Sunday Express'' in which she mentioned that

Bessie Braddock Elizabeth Margaret Braddock (née Bamber; 24 September 1899 – 13 November 1970) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who served as Parliament of the United Kingdom, Member of Parliament (MP) for the Liverp ...

and

Edith Summerskill Edith Clara Summerskill, Baroness Summerskill, (19 April 1901 – 4 February 1980) was a British physician, feminist, Labour politician and writer. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1949. Early life Summerskill was educated at King's ...

had been snoring whilst asleep in the lady members' room. The matter was referred to the

Committee for Privileges The Committee for Privileges and Conduct was a select committee of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom which considered issues relating to the privileges of the House of Lords and its members, as well as having oversight fo ...

. Ford was a strong proponent of

equal pay Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full ...

between the sexes and rode in a horse-drawn carriage to Parliament to draw attention to the matter. She retired at the 1955 general election. In 1972 she founded and was co-chairman of the Women Caring Trust, now Hope for Youth Northern Ireland. She was expelled from the Orange Order's women's section for attending a wedding at the

Brompton Oratory Brompton Oratory is a large neo-classical Roman Catholic church in the Knightsbridge area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. Its full name is the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, or as named in its Grade II* archit ...

Personal life

In 1941, she married cricketer Neville Montagu Ford, son of the Very Rev. Lionel George Bridges Justice Ford and grandson of 4th Lord Lyttelton. They had two daughters: Sarah, who married Sir Michael Grylls and whose son is explorer Bear Grylls, and Mary Rose, who is married and has two daughters. Patricia Ford was divorced from her first husband and married Sir Nigel Fisher, MP, in 1956, acquiring the courtesy title of Lady Fisher and becoming stepmother to

Mark Fisher Mark Fisher (11 July 1968 – 13 January 2017), also known under his blogging alias k-punk, was an English writer, music critic, political and cultural theorist, philosopher, and teacher based in the Department of Visual Cultures at Golds ...

, later a Labour Party MP.

References

External links

Hope for Youth Northern Ireland (official website)
Accessed 23 November 2022.
Image
npg.org.uk. Accessed 23 November 2022.
Patricia Ford MP - first woman to sit for a Northern Ireland constituency
ukvote100.org. 15 September 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Patricia 1921 births 1995 deaths Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Down constituencies (since 1922) Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Northern Irish constituencies Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom People from Donaghadee People educated at Glendower Preparatory School Politicians from County Down UK MPs 1951–1955 20th-century women politicians from Northern Ireland Wives of knights