Outstanding Woman In British Civil Service

Press, Volume C, Issue 29444, 21 February 1961, Page 2

Outstanding Woman In British Civil Service

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON, February 20. Dame Evelyn Sharp, the permanent secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, is the main guiding hand behind new directives on housing in a White Paper Just issued by the Minister of Housing (Mr Henry Brooke).

Known as “a really tough egg” among her colleagues, she is one of the most outstanding women in the Civil Service and for the last 10 years has wielded a great deal of influence behind the scenes at the Ministry. At one time she was credited with being one of the few persons in England who fully understood the Town and Country Planning Act (1947) and it is said she is certainly the only person in England who can explain it lucidly. Many persons suggest she is rather • more than a Ministerial draughtsman and that hers is the mind which has formulated so many of the development plans that are changing the face of Britain. Her father was a suburban vicar who thought his daughters should be educated, so he sent Dame Evelyn Sharpe and her sister to Oxford. Dame Evelyn Sharpe sat for the Civil Service competitive examination in 1926. She came seventh out of 400 and started work with the Board of Trade —the lowest rung of a ladder which rapidly took her to the top in the Civil Service. Highest Paid By 1946 she was the highest paid woman there. She was the right hand in turn to Aneurin Bevan, Hugh Dalton. Harold Macmillan. Duncan Sandys and now Henry Brooke. She is an expert organiser and administrator and is known for her complete and detailed arguments. "I hate litter.’* she once said. “It is something I feel really strongly about.'* Her efforts to clear “litter” can be seen in the way in

which private rents have been “tidied” and in plans for “tidying” council rents and doing away with decaying suburban dwellings and slums.

“She is able to grasp hold of any Minister’s ideas, even more firmly than the Minister can himself,” said a colleague. “She interprets them for him. It is something only a woman could do—a man always wants to be the Minister himself.”