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Alice Bacon, Baroness Bacon

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The Right Honourable
The Baroness Bacon
CBE PC
Chair of the Labour Party
In office
1950–1951
Prime MinisterClement Attlee
Preceded bySam Watson
Succeeded byHarry Earnshaw
Member of Parliament
for Leeds South East
In office
26 May 1955 – 29 May 1970
Preceded byDenis Healey
Succeeded byStan Cohen
Member of Parliament
for Leeds North East
In office
5 July 1945 – 6 May 1955
Preceded byJohn Craik-Henderson
Succeeded byOsbert Peake
Personal details
Born(1909-09-10)10 September 1909
Normanton, West Yorkshire
Died24 March 1993(1993-03-24) (aged 83)
Political partyLabour

Alice Martha Bacon, Baroness Bacon, CBE, PC (10 September 1909 – 24 March 1993) was a British Labour Party politician born in Normanton, West Yorkshire.[1]

Early life and education

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Bacon's father was secretary of the Whitwood branch of the National Union of Mineworkers and the family joined in local campaigns to alleviate poverty.[2] She was educated at Normanton Girls' High School and Stockwell Teachers' Training College, before becoming a schoolteacher.[2]

Political career

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At the age of 16, Bacon delivered her first political speech,[3] and she joined the Labour Party around the same time. In 1935, she became as Labour's League of Youth delegate to the Socialist Youth International Conference. Bacon was active in the National Union of Teachers and became president of its West Yorkshire division in 1944.[2]

In 1938, Bacon was selected as the candidate for Leeds North East, for which she became the MP in the 1945 general election, as the city's first woman MP.[2] When constituency boundaries were revised for the 1955 general election, she transferred to Leeds South East constituency and served it as MP until she retired in 1970.[2]

Bacon was on the Labour Party's National Executive Committee from 1941 until 1970, and chaired it in 1950–1951. In the 1953 Coronation Honours she was appointed a CBE.[4]

When Labour returned to government under Harold Wilson's leadership in 1964, Bacon became a Minister of State at the Home Office up to 1967, serving under Frank Soskice and Roy Jenkins in a period of liberalising reforms. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1966. From 1967 to 1970 she was Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, where she campaigned for comprehensive education.[2]

On her retirement from the House of Commons, Bacon was created on 14 October 1970 Baroness Bacon of the City of Leeds and of Normanton in the West Riding of Yorkshire.[5]

The Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves published Alice in Westminster: The Political Life of Alice Bacon in 2019 (I.B. Tauris).[6] Reeves writes of Bacon that she "was a pioneer in the world of education and politics whose success was founded on her determination to stay true to her working-class roots and the people she came into politics to serve", and that her commitment to comprehensive education was especially praiseworthy.[6]

Memorial

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A Leeds Civic Trust Blue Plaque was unveiled by Rachel Reeves in 2019 in Leeds Corn Exchange.

Alice Bacon Blue Plaque at Leeds Corn Exchange, unveiled by her biographer Rachel Reeves MP (right)

Since 2018 the University of Leeds holds an annual Alice Bacon Lecture to celebrate pioneering and strong women. These have been given by Harriet Harman (2018), Baroness Hale of Richmond (2019), (2020 not given due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Baroness Doreen Lawrence (2021), Mary Beard (2022), Dame Sharon White (2023). The lecture was set up and hosted by a collaboration of Rachel Reeves and the University's Centre for Democratic Politics (previously School of Politics and International Studies).[7][8]

References

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  1. ^ Reeves, Rachel; Carr, Richard (2017), Alice in Westminster: The Political Life of Alice Bacon, London: I. B. taurus & Co. Ltd, ISBN 978-1-78453-768-5
  2. ^ a b c d e f Thornton, David (2021). Leeds: A Biographical Dictionary. Beecroft Publications. p. 15.
  3. ^ Stead, Jean (16 November 1964). "Woman in Whitehall". The Guardian. p. 6.
  4. ^ "No. 39863". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 1953. p. 2953.
  5. ^ "No. 45216". The London Gazette. 20 October 1970. pp. 11472–11473.
  6. ^ a b Reeves, Rachel (27 November 2016). "We owe a debt to Labour's bold, pioneering Alice Bacon". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  7. ^ "Women and Power". University of Leeds. 26 September 2022. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  8. ^ "'The Female Leader': The Alice Bacon Lecture 2023". University of Leeds. 2 November 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Leeds North East
1945–1955 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Leeds South East
1955–1970 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Chair of the Labour Party
1950–1951 		Succeeded by


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