Florence Ruth Dalton, Baroness Dalton (née Hamilton Fox; 9 March 1890 – 15 March 1966 at Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages) was a British Labour Party politician. A long serving member of 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 ...

, she holds the record for being one of the two shortest-serving female

Members 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 of ...

(MP).Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics: Records
/ref>

Career

A graduate of the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, she married

Hugh Dalton Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton, (16 August 1887 – 13 February 1962) was a British Labour Party economist and politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947. He shaped Labour Party foreign policy in the 1 ...

, later a Labour Party Member of Parliament, in 1914; they had one child, a daughter. The family lived at West Leaze,

Aldbourne Aldbourne (pronounced "awld·bawn") is a village and civil parish about north-east of Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, in a valley on the south slope of the Lambourn Downs – part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. ...

, Wiltshire and at Carlisle Mansions, Carlisle Place, London. In 1925 she was elected a member of the

.Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics: Women MPs Elected 1918-1929
/ref> Her husband was MP for

Peckham Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon p ...

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...

, later a solidly Labour seat, but then highly marginal; his majority in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

was only 947 votes. He had been selected as Labour candidate for the

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinat ...

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, where the sitting MP

Ben Spoor Benjamin Charles Spoor (2 June 1878 – 22 December 1928) was a British Labour Party politician. He took a particular interest in India. Born in Witton Park, County Durham, he went to Elmfield College, York, and came from a family of Primi ...

was retiring, but Spoor died shortly before Christmas 1928, necessitating 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 ...

. However, Hugh Dalton could not stand without resigning his Peckham seat, and the candidate selected to succeed him in Peckham was John Beckett, then MP for

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

, so Hugh Dalton could not stand without triggering another two by-elections. The Bishop Auckland

Constituency Labour Party __NOTOC__ A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency. In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituenc ...

therefore needed a candidate who would agree to stand down at the next general election. The seventy-strong general committee unanimously chose Ruth Dalton, because she could be relied on to make way for her husband as soon as Parliament was dissolved; no other candidate was even considered. Ruth Dalton duly won the by-election on 7 February with a large majority, receiving 57% of the votes cast, and served until

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

was dissolved on 10 May for the 1929 general election. She had thus been a Member of Parliament for only 92 days, a record for a female MP. It was equalled 45 years later by

Margo MacDonald Margo Symington MacDonald (''née'' Aitken; 19 April 1943 – 4 April 2014) was a Scottish politician, teacher and broadcaster. She was the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Govan from 1973 to 1974 and was ...

, the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

MP for Glasgow Govan from 8 November 1973 to 8 February 1974. Dalton did not enjoy 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. ...

, and as agreed did not stand for Parliament again. She felt that more work was accomplished on London County Council, where she held her seat as an elected member until 1931, then returning from 1935 to 1942 as 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 ...

, including a period as Chairman of the Parks Committee. She later served on the Board of Governors of the

Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...

and from 1957 to 1962 was on the Arts Council. Her husband was made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

in 1960, and she was then known as Lady Dalton.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dalton, Ruth 1890 births 1966 deaths Alumni of the London School of Economics Members of London County Council Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1924–1929 20th-century British women politicians British baronesses Spouses of life peers 20th-century English women 20th-century English people Women councillors in England

Career

See also

References

External links