- Beatrice Wright
Beatrice Frederika Wright, née Clough, later Rathbone (
17 June 1910 –17 Mar 2003 ) was an American-born British politician.She came to England to study at
Ratcliffe College , where she met and later married John Rathbone, with whom she had two children, including Tim, later MP for Lewes. Her husband was elected in 1935 as ConservativeMember of Parliament or Bodmin, but was killed in December 1940 in theBattle of Britain , aged 30. In March 1941 she was elected unopposed as his successor, and sat in the Commons for the rest ofWorld War II . She stepped down at the 1945 general election, after becoming the first sitting MP to give birth to a child.In 1942, she remarried to Paul Wright, who had a distinguished career as a
diplomat and was knighted in 1975. They had one child, and both converted to theRoman Catholic Church .She served as Vice President of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf from 1978 to 2003, and was a founder in 1982 of
Hearing Dogs for Deaf People , serving as the charity's President until 1988. In 1996, she was awarded an MBE.The Beatrice Wright Training Centre for
hearing dog s, inSelby , is named after her.External links
* [http://www.qub.ac.uk/cawp/UK%20bios/UK_bios_40s.htm#wright Beatrice Wright (Beatrice Rathbone)] at the Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06/13/db1301.xml Obituary, Sir Paul Wright] , Daily Telegraph2005-06-13
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1674167,00.html Obituary, Sir Paul Wright] , The Times2005-06-30
* [http://www.hearing-dogs.co.uk History of Hearing Dogs for Deaf People]
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