Ruth Crisp English

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Ruth Crisp English was a Suffolk born British Liberal Party politician.

Suffolk County of England

Suffolk is an East Anglian county of historic origin in England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket and Felixstowe, one of the largest container ports in Europe.

Liberal Party (UK) political party of the United Kingdom, 1859–1988

The Liberal Party was one of the two major parties in the United Kingdom with the opposing Conservative Party in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free trade Peelites and Radicals favourable to the ideals of the American and French Revolutions in the 1850s. By the end of the 19th century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite being divided over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to government in 1905 and then won a landslide victory in the following year's general election.

Contents

Background

She was the only child of Sir Thomas Crisp English and Annie Gaunt McLeod of Sudbury, Suffolk. [1] Her father was a surgeon to Winston Churchill.

Sudbury, Suffolk town in Suffolk, England

Sudbury is a small market town in the English county of Suffolk. It is located on the River Stour near the Essex border, and is 60 miles (97 km) north-east of London. At the 2011 census, the parish has a population of 13,063, rising to 21,971 including the adjoining parish of Great Cornard. It is the largest town of Babergh district council, the local government district, and is represented in the UK Parliament as part of the South Suffolk constituency.

Winston Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during most of World War II

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was a British politician, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led Britain to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill represented five constituencies during his career as a Member of Parliament (MP). Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, for most of his career he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, but from 1904 to 1924 was instead a member of the Liberal Party.

She was a nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital during the 1939-45 war before going to the War Office Intelligence Department. She was one of the founders of the Heckford Society in Shadwell and Limehouse, and was a Governor of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, Shadwell. [2]

St Bartholomews Hospital Hospital in London

St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.

War Office department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army

The War Office was a Department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence. It was equivalent to the Admiralty, responsible for the Royal Navy, and the Air Ministry, which oversaw the Royal Air Force. The name "War Office" is also given to the former home of the department, the War Office building, located at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall in central London.

Shadwell neighborhood in London, England

Shadwell is a district in East London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is located north of Wapping and south of Whitechapel, about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Charing Cross.

Political career

After the war she got active in the Liberal Party. She was the Hon. Secretary of the Westminster Liberal Party and an Executive Member of the London Liberal Party. [3] On a number of occasions she tried to get elected to Westminster City Council by contesting the Grosvenor Ward, without success. [4] In 1949 she was adopted as Liberal Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Lowestoft Division of Suffolk and she contested the 1950 General Election. It was not a promising seat for the Liberals, who had not won it since 1918 and had come third at the last election in 1945. In an election where many Liberal candidates lost their deposit, she managed to avoid that embarrassment;

Westminster area of central London, within the City of Westminster

Westminster is a government district and former capital of the Kingdom of England in Central London within the City of Westminster, part of the West End, on the north bank of the River Thames. Westminster's concentration of visitor attractions and historic landmarks, one of the highest in London, includes the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral.

Lowestoft was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Lowestoft in Suffolk. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

General Election 1950: Lowestoft [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Labour Edward Evans 20,83844.8
Conservative P G Whitefoord17,51637.7
Liberal Ruth Crisp English8,13217.5
Majority3,3227.1
Turnout 55,45683.8
Labour hold Swing

Aubrey Herbert

Later in life, she married County Councillor Aubrey Herbert, son of Sir Jesse Herbert, a senior figure in the Liberal Party organisation before the First World War. [6] Aubrey had been President of the Oxford Union [7] and had himself stood for parliament for the Liberals at Chester in 1929 (missing out on election by 162 votes) and 1931, and Sudbury and Woodbridge in 1959. [8] They had no children.

City of Chester (UK Parliament constituency) Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1885 onwards

The City of Chester is a constituency created in 1545 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Chris Matheson of the Labour Party.

Sudbury and Woodbridge was a county constituency centred on the towns of Sudbury and Woodbridge in Suffolk. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Sir Crisp English: http://virtualmuseum.sudburysuffolk.co.uk/recent-research/the-surgeon-who-saved-churchill/

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Bury St Edmunds (UK Parliament constituency) Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1885 onwards

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References

  1. Who's Who: www.ukWhosWho.com
  2. The Times House of Commons, 1950
  3. The Times House of Commons, 1950
  4. Who's Who of 475 Liberal Candidates fighting the 1950 General Election
  5. British parliamentary election results 1950-1973, Craig, F. W. S.
  6. Who's Who: www.ukWhosWho.com
  7. The Times House of Commons, 1931
  8. British parliamentary election results 1950-1973, Craig, F. W. S.