ELLEN WILKINSON DEAD

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 February 1947, Page 5

ELLEN WILKINSON DEAD

ONLY WOMAN IN BRITISH CABINET LONG SERVICE FOR LABOUR LONDON, Feb. 6. j The Minister of Education (Miss Ellen Wilkinson)- died this morning at St. Mary’s Hospital from heart failure. She had been ill with bronchitis. Miss Wilkinson, who was 55 years of age, was the only woman member of the Cabinet. During the last few months she had been working hard on the new Education Act. Born at Manchester, Miss Wilkinson was the daughter of a cotton mill worker who later became an insurance agent. She attended a State primal y school, winning ”a scholarship to a secondary school, Manchester. After that she went on to the University of Manchester, where she graduated as a Master..-of Arts. Worked as Teacher For a time she worked as a teacher, but her heart was in politics. As early as 1912 she joined the Independent Labour Party and in the same. year began agitating for women’s suffrage. During .the 1914-18 war she entered the trade-union movement. Always a Leftist within her trade union, Miss Wilkinson joined the British Communist Party of Beta’ll when it was founded in 1920, and from 1923 to 192 G sat on the Manchester City Council. In 1924 she changed to the Labour Party and was returned to Parliament for Middlesborough. In 1926 she played an active part in the general

strike, touring the country to make speeches. Defeated at the general election in 1931, she was returned to Parliament four years later as Lacour member lor Jarrow —north-easteri? shipbuilding town. In Churchill Government When Mr Churchill formed his allportv Government in 1940, her hard work in Parliament led to her appointment as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions. In October of that year she left the Ministry of Pensions to become Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Security. _ - During her early years in politics Miss Wilkinson was a prolific journalist and writer, and her contnbutions appeared in many Labour apcl other papers. J “DEATH A TRAGEDY OF 1 OVERWORK” (Rec. 10.50 a.m.) LONDON, February 6.Miss Ellen Wilkinson’s death is a tragedy of overwork, says the Evening Standard. Doctors repeatedly advised her to rest but she could hot stay away from her duties. One of the main provisions of the Education Act, raising the school age to 15 will operate from April. Miss Wilkinson for months stumped the country telling parents, teachers, and school authorities what the change involved. In the House of Commons to-day, the Prime Minister, Mr. C. R. Attlee said he had hoped Miss Wilkinson had many more years of good service before her. During the war, when at the Home Office,, she had spent night after night amid the destruction and falling bombs fearlessly doing :her duty. Mr. Churchill said: “I can testify to the earnestness, zeal and sympathy with which she discharged all her work.”