Judith Hart

Judith Hart, Baroness Hart of South Lanark DBE PC (18 September 1924 – 8 December 1991) was a British Labour Party politician.

Christened Constance Mary Judith Ridehalgh, she was educated at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, the London School of Economics and the University of London. She 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.

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 1964-66, Minister of State, Commonwealth Office 1966-67, Minister of Social Security from 1967-68, Paymaster-General (with a seat in the Cabinet) from 1968-69, Minister of Overseas Development from 1969-70 and from 1974-75, and as Minister for Overseas Development from 1977-79. 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, 1979-80. Govt Co-Chairman of the Women's National Commission, 1969-70. Within the Labour Party she was a member of the National Executive Committee, 1969-83, latterly as Vice-Chairman in 1980-81 and as Chairman in 1981-82.

She was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1967 and appointed a DBE. In 1988 she was created a Life peer, as Baroness Hart of South Lanark, of Lanark in the County of Lanark.

She died at the age of 67 in 1991 of undisclosed causes.

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NAME=Hart, Judith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Baroness Hart of South Lanark
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DATE OF BIRTH=18 September 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH=8 December 1991
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