Doris Fisher, Baroness Fisher of Rednal

Doris Mary Gertrude Fisher, Baroness Fisher of Rednal, JP (13 September 1919 – 18 December 2005[1]), née Satchwell, was a British politician.

The Right Honourable The Baroness Fisher of Rednal JP
Member of the House of Lords
In office 1974–2005
Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood
In office 18 June 1970 – 8 February 1974
Preceded by	Wallace Lawler
Succeeded by	Brian Walden
Personal details
Born	Doris Mary Gertrude Satchwell 13 September 1919 Birmingham, England
Died	18 December 2005 (aged 86)
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Joseph Fisher ​ ​ (m. 1939; died 1978)​
Children	2

Early life and career

Born in Birmingham, she was the daughter of Frederick James Satchwell.[2] She was educated at Tinker's Farm Girls' School, Fircroft College and Bournville Day Continuation College.[3]

She joined the Labour Party in 1945 and was nominated director of her local Co-operative board in 1951.[4] A year later, Fisher was elected a member of the Birmingham City Council, in which she sat until 1974.[5] Subsequently, she served as a member of the Warrington and Runcorn Development Corporation until 1989.[3] Fisher was National President of the Co-operative Party Guild in 1961 and was appointed a Justice of the Peace.[4]

Parliamentary career

She contested Birmingham Ladywood in 1969 at a by-election in which Wallace Lawler of the Liberals gained the seat from Labour.[3] In the following general election, Fisher defeated him when she was returned as the constituency MP, representing the seat until the February 1974 general election when her seat was altered in boundary changes.[6] After her departure from the House of Commons, she was created a life peer as Baroness Fisher of Rednal, of Rednal, in the City of Birmingham on 2 July 1974.[7]

In the House of Lords, Fisher became Crown Representative of the General Medical Council in September 1974 and later chaired the Esperanto Group.[8] She was nominated an Assistant Whip for Environment in 1983, an office she held until the following year.[5] Fisher entered the European Parliament in 1975, sitting in Strasbourg until 1979.[2] She was vice-president of the Institute of Trading Standards Administration (today the Trading Standards Institute).[2]

In December 1991, at the age of 72, Lady Fisher slept rough in a nest of cardboard boxes at Birmingham's St Philip's Cathedral to draw attention to the plight of the city's homeless.[2]

Personal life

She married Joseph Fisher, a sheet-metal-worker at the Longbridge plant, in 1939 and had two daughters.[3] Her husband died in 1978 and she survived him until 2005, when she died aged 86.[4]

References

1. House of Lords (20 December 2005). "Announcement of her death at the House of Lords". Minutes of Proceedings. Retrieved 8 November 2006.
2. "Obituary - Lady Fisher of Rednal". The Daily Telegraph. 21 December 2005. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
3. Dalyell, Tam (24 December 2005). "Obituary - Baroness Fisher of Rednal". The Independent. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
4. Roth, Andrew (14 February 2006). "Obituary - Baroness Fisher". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
5. "Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics - Doris Fisher". Retrieved 5 December 2009.
6. "Leigh Rayment - British House of Commons, Ladywood". Archived from the original on 29 June 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
7. "No. 46352". The London Gazette. 24 September 1974. p. 7918.
8. Charles Roger Dod & Robert Phipps Dod (1985). Dod's Parliamentary Companion. Dod's Parliamentary Companion Ltd. p. 103. ISBN 0-905702-10-7.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Doris Fisher