Ida Copeland

Ida Copeland née Fenzi MP; MStJ; FRSA; Silver Medallist
Member of Parliament
for Stoke on Trent, Stoke division
In office
1931–1935
Preceded by Cynthia Mosley
Succeeded by Ellis Smith
Majority 6654 votes
Chairman of Stoke Division Women's Unionist Association
In office
1920–1921
Chairman of the Staffordshire Anglo Polish Society
In office
1943 – ??
Personal details
Born 1875
Died 29 June 1964
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Richard Ronald John Copeland
Residence Trelissick
Occupation Envoy
Religion Church of England

Ida Copeland F.R.S., MStJ, M.P, [née Fenzi][1] (1876–1964) was a British politician born and raised in Florence, Italy.

Contents

Family & Early Life

Great grand daughter of Count Emanuele Fenzi and daughter of Count Camillo Fenzi (†1883) Banker and Senator of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and his wife, Evelyne Isabella, daughter of Sir Douglas Strutt Galton,[2] cousin of Florence Nightingale.[3] In 1898 her mother married Leonard Cunliffe, influential London financier, Governor of the Bank of England, President of the Hudson's Bay Company and one of the major investors in the Harrods department stores,[4] upon his death in August 1937 Cunliffe left a considerable bequest to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Leonard Daneham Cunliffe left to the Fitzwilliam a collection whose breadth and splendour enriched almost every department. It ranged from ancient and Renaissance bronzes, paintings, drawings, prints and portrait miniatures to enamels, furniture, textiles, pottery and metal plate, including an exquisite Nautilus shell cup made in London c.1585-1586.[5][6]

In 1915 she married Richard Ronald John Copeland Esq[7][8][9] (1884–1958), Staffordshire, grandson of William Taylor Copeland,[10] Mayor of London,[11] president and chairman of the Spode-Copeland firm of bone china manufacturers in Staffordshire, potters to the royal family since 1806.

Girl Guides

Copeland was an active participant in the success of the Girl Guides and was member of the International Council of Girl Guides from 1920–28 and 1940-1948. Throughout her life she was dedicated to all forms of social and welfare causes. Funding and campaigning alongside Baden-Powell for the development of the Girl Guide movement. She served as a division commissioner for the north-west of the county from 1918, while her husband Ronald was a county commissioner for the Boy Scout Association. Later the Copeland family donated the Kibblestone Hall Estate[12] to the Staffordshire Scouting Mouvement to be used as a scout camp.

Elected MP

Elected chairman of the Stoke division of the Women's Unionist Association[13] in 1920, she was chosen as Conservative candidate for the Stoke division of Stoke on Trent in 1931 for the general election. Facing the opposition of Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the New Party for the constituency, Copeland's popularity and involvement in local poliics and welfare proved fruitful. Mosley maintained strong connections with the Nazi Party in Germany. Lady Cynthia Mosley, had won Stoke for Labour in 1929.[14] Although Mosley spent less than a week campaigning in the constituency, directing his efforts instead at a national campaign, he met enthusiastic support there, especially amongst younger voters. However the electoral tide ran in Copeland's favour. Her husband's position as a leading china manufacturer in the Potteries, and her 'moderate and straightforward appeal' won her an audience even outside factory gates.[15] She won by an impressive majority of 6654 votes. She was the 25th woman to be elected to the House of Commons. [16]

On May 1932, Copeland made her maiden speech on import duties, which she approached 'entirely from the point of view of the pottery industry'.[17] It was an industry under threat from foreign competition and she welcomed the protection that tariffs afforded. She believed that overseas manufacturers paid starvation wages to their workers, and it was with a critical eye on the opposition benches that she asked:

Can we allow goods manufactured under those conditions to come into this country and lower the standard of living of our own people? I say 'no', and I firmly believe that, if we raise these tariffs, the time will come when our industry will be on its feet again.[18][19]

She made another plea for protection of the china industry in December 1933 after reports that Australian and New Zealand markets were being flooded by cheap Japanese goods, including skilful imitations of British wares: ‘the competition is so severe that it threatens to sweep the English Potteries right out of those countries’.[20] She wanted the British government to compel the dominion governments, in their own interests as much as in Britain's, to take action to prevent this ‘dumping’. This was, though, a sensitive matter and the official response was sympathetic without being specific.

She was also godmother to the daughter of John Becker and Dorothy Crisp (Elizabeth born 1946). Dorothy Crisp who kept her maiden name after marriage, was an English author, political writer and publisher. She was one time chairman of the British Housewives' League and (unlike Ida Copeland) was unsuccessful as an independent candidate in the 1943 Acton by-election in London.

Ancestry

Accomplishments

References

  1. ^ Who was who (1920–1964)
  2. ^ Burke, Gen. GB (1935)
  3. ^ BL, corresp. with Florence Nightingale, Add. MSS
  4. ^ Hudson's Bay Company (Hbc) http://www.hbc.com/hbcheritage/history/people/governors/article.asp?article=38. In 1907 Leonard Cunliffe joined Hbc’s Board, replacing the retiring Sir Sandford Fleming. Two years later Cunliffe invited Harrods Managing Director Sir Richard Burbidge to accompany him to Canada to inspect the Company’s retail business.
  5. ^ Cunliffe's treasures provided a grand finale to Sir Sydney Cockerell's Directorship. 'A very important bequest has come to the Fitzwilliam,' he wrote in September 1937, 'just in time to be included in my spoils.'
  6. ^ http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/cockerell/pigstytopalace/europeanceramics.html
  7. ^ D. J. Jeremy, ed., Dictionary of business biography, 5 vols. (1984–6)
  8. ^ J. Burke, A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, 4 vols. (1833–8); new edn as A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the landed gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, 3 vols. [1843–9]
  9. ^ Who was who (1900–1958)
  10. ^ P. A. Halfpenny, ed., Spode-Copeland, 1733–1983: potters to the royal family since 1806 (1983) [exhibition catalogue, City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, 1983]
  11. ^ A. B. Beaven, ed., The aldermen of the City of London, temp. Henry III–[1912], 2 vols. (1908–13)
  12. ^ Stone Hist. and Civic Soc. No., PT00389
  13. ^ The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  14. ^ R. Skidelsky, Oswald Mosley (1990)
  15. ^ The Times, 23 Oct 1931
  16. ^ photograph, repro. in The Times (29 Oct 1931)
  17. ^ Hansard 5C, vol. 265, col. 1204
  18. ^ ibid., col. 1206
  19. ^ Hansard 5C Parliamentary debates, Commons, 5th ser. (1909–)
  20. ^ Hansard 5C, vol. 283, col. 1790
  21. ^ R. Fedden and R. Joekes, The National Trust guide (1973)

Sources

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Cynthia Mosley		 Member of Parliament for Stoke
1931–1935		 Succeeded by
Ellis Smith