Florence Horsburgh

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Florence Gertrude Horsburgh, Baroness Horsburgh (13 October 1889 – 6 December 1969) was a Scottish Conservative Party politician.

She was educated at Lansdowne House, Edinburgh, St Hilda’s, Folkestone, and Mills College, California.

Horsburgh was a Member of Parliament for Dundee from 1931 until her defeat in 1945. She was the first woman to move the Address in reply to the King's Speech. She unsuccessfully contested Midlothian and Peebles in 1950 and sat for Manchester Moss Side from 1950 until her retirement in 1959. On retirement she was elevated to the House of Lords, as a life peer with the title Baroness Horsburgh, of Horsburgh in the County of Peebles, where she sat until her death.

She held ministerial office in the wartime coalition governments as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health (1939-45), Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food (1945). Following her return to the House of Commons she was the first woman to hold a Cabinet post in a Conservative government when appointed Minister of Education from 1951 to 1954. She also served as a delegate to the Council of Europe and Western European Union from 1955 until 1960.

Horsburgh was always interested in child welfare and as a private member introduced the bill which became the Adoption of Children (Regulation) Act 1939. She did a lot of preparatory work on the scheme which eventually became the National Health Service.

She was awarded the MBE in 1920, promoted to CBE in 1939, and to GBE in 1954. She was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1945.

[edit] External links

• The Papers of Florence Horsburgh, Baroness Horsbrugh at Cambridge University's Janus project

[edit] Sources

• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Michael Marcus Edwin Scrymgeour	Member of Parliament for Dundee 2-seat constituency (with Dingle Foot) 1931–1945	Succeeded by Thomas Cook John St Loe Strachey
Preceded by William Griffiths	Member of Parliament for Manchester Moss Side 1950–1959	Succeeded by James Watts
Political offices
Preceded by George Tomlinson	Minister of Education 1951–1954	Succeeded by David Eccles