Brief Profile

Janet (Jennie) Lee was born in Lochgelly, daughter of a coal miner. She attended Beath Secondary School where she was dux and was funded to study in The University of Edinburgh by Fife Education Authority and the Carnegie Trust. Thanks to her parents’ strong socialist activism, she was immersed in left wing politics from a young age, joining the Independent Labour Party as a teenager.

In 1929, elected as Member of Parliament for North Lanarkshire, she become the youngest woman elected to the House of Commons. The first female Scottish Labour MP, she became noted for her fiery left-wing views.

She lost her seat in 1931 but remained politically active, travelling to Spain as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War. She returned to Parliament in the 1945 Labour landslide as MP for Cannock, and there supported Aneurin Bevan, whom she had married in 1934, in his work in establishing the National Health Service.

In the Wilson government, she was appointed Minister for the Arts, the very first such appointment to publicly promote the arts. Her main achievement, working directly with Harold Wilson, was the establishment of the Open University and it is her enduring legacy.

She lost her seat in 1970 but was created a life peer (Baroness Lee of Asheridge) and was awarded an honorary LLD by the University of Cambridge in 1974.

Invitation

Appreciations are invited from family members and others, especially those who, like our customer, feel that Jennie Lee deserves to be remembered and celebrated.

They should be sent to: registrations@milestonesscotland.co.uk.

We have made provision for the possibility of a family member wishing to take on ownership of the profile in a Protocol to our Terms and Conditions.

Please Note: The content of Appreciations is subject to the joint approval of Milestones and our customer. This right of editorial control will usually only be exercised when judged necessary for the protection of the good names of the subject and the site. A Moderator may suggest it be used to edit for accuracy or brevity or to create a lighter while still respectful tone.