Judith Hart, Baroness Hart of South Lanark

Judith Hart, Baroness Hart of South Lanark DBE PC (née Ridehalgh; 18 September 1924 – 8 December 1991) was a British Labour Party politician. She served as a government minister during the 1960s and 1970s before entering the House of Lords in 1988.

Early life and education

Born as Constance Mary Ridehalgh, she was educated at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, the London School of Economics and the University of London. She adopted the name Judith, aged twelve and married Anthony Bernard Hart in 1946. She was a lecturer at a teacher training college. She was a member of the Fabian Society and a branch secretary of the Association of Scientific Workers.

Political career

After joining the Labour Party aged 18, Hart was unsuccessful Labour candidate for Bournemouth West in 1951, and Aberdeen South in 1955. She was elected as member for Lanark in 1959, holding the seat until 1983. Thereafter she sat for Clydesdale until 1987.

She held ministerial office as joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland from 1964 to 1966, Minister of State, Commonwealth Office (1966–1967), Minister of Social Security (1967–1968), Paymaster-General (with a seat in the Cabinet) from 1968 to 1969, and as Minister of Overseas Development from 1969 to 1970, 1974 to 1975 and 1977 to 1979. In so doing, Hart became the fifth woman ever to have been included in a government cabinet in the history of Britain.

In opposition, Hart was front bench spokesman on overseas aid from 1979 to 1980. Govt Co-Chairman of the Women's National Commission, 1969-70. Within the Labour Party she was a member of the National Executive Committee (1969–1983), serving as Vice-Chairman from 1980 to 1981 and as Chairman from 1981 to 1982.

She was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1967 and appointed a DBE in 1979.^[1] On 8 February 1988, she was created a life peer, as Baroness Hart of South Lanark, of Lanark in the County of Lanark.^[2]

She died of cancer at the Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton, London, in 1991, aged 67.

Titles and honours

• Miss Judith Ridehalgh (1924–1946)
• Mrs Judith Hart (1946–1959)
• Judith Hart MP (1959–1967)
• The Rt. Hon. Judith Hart MP (1967–1979)
• The Rt. Hon. Dame Judith Hart DBE MP (1979–1988)
• The Rt. Hon. The Baroness Hart of South Lanark DBE PC (1988–1991)

Spike Milligan poem

Spike Milligan wrote the following poem mentioning Judith Hart:

Judith Hart once made for me

An early morning cup of tea.

It isn't every day that we

Are waited on by an MP.

Footnotes

References

• Sutherland, Duncan (May 2008). "Hart, Judith, Baroness Hart of South Lanark (1924–1991)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49767. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49767. Retrieved 2009-09-06.  Subscription or UK public library membership required

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Judith Hart