Fanny Deakin
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Fanny Deakin (1883-1968) was a communist politician from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.
She was born in 1883 into a large but poor family in the mining village of Silverdale just outside Newcastle-under-Lyme. She left school early and began work on the farm where her family lived. Seeing the poverty around her, Fanny was prompted to enter politics and in 1923 was the first woman to be elected onto Wolstanton Council as a Labour member. Three years later in 1927 she regained her seat standing as a Communist.
Having only one of her five children survive to adulthood she campaigned for better maternity care of women and free milk for babies and children under five years. Popular with villagers she visited the Soviet Union in 1927 and 1930 gaining the nickname '“Red Fanny'”.
In the 1930’s she met the Prime Minister, James Ramsay Macdonald, at 10 Downing Street along with a group of unemployed miners. Her meeting with the Prime Minister was a success and local councils began to give free milk to pregnant mothers and children up to the age of five.
However, not everyone was so easily impressed by her and when a friend was found guilty of inciting a riot and she gave him an alibi she was charged with perjury and spent 9 months in Winson Green Prison.
Re-elected to the now merged Newcastle-under-Lyme Council, in 1934 she became a County Councillor becoming involved in several committees relating to maternity and child welfare. In 1941 she became an alderman in the Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough, the first communist to do so in England and in 1946 this honour was extended to her at the county level. Finally in 1947 she achieved what most people remember her for when a maternity home was opened bearing her name for use by women in Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough.
In the years she had been involved in politics she had achieved her two aims: better nourishment for babies and young children and better maternity care for mothers.
Thousands of children were born at the Fanny Deakin Maternity Home. When the local hospital opened a G.P ward, it was named after her. Her campaign for mothers and children’s health is remembered in the name of this ward.
