Muriel Turner, Baroness Turner of Camden
British Labour politician and trade union leader
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Muriel Winifred Turner, Baroness Turner of Camden (née Price; 18 September 1922 – 26 February 2018) was a British Labour politician and trade union leader.
18 September 1922
The Baroness Turner of Camden | |
|---|---|
| |
| Member of the House of Lords | |
| Life peerage 29 May 1985 – 13 June 2017 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Muriel Winifred Price 18 September 1922 London, England |
| Died | 26 February 2018 (aged 95) London, England |
| Party | Labour |
| Spouse |
Reginald Turner
(m. 1955; died 1995) |
Background
Muriel Winifred Price was born in Balham, London, on 18 September 1922, the daughter of George and Winifred (née Bishop) Price.[1][2] She spent her early years in Bromley, Kent.[2] After an early marriage to George Springall, in 1947, subsequently ended in divorce, she married Reginald Thomas Frederick Turner, MC, DFC, in 1955.[2][3] They did not have any children together but the marriage brought two step children.[4] He predeceased her, dying in 1995.[3]
Career
Between 1970 and 1987 Turner was Assistant General Secretary of ASTMS (later Manufacturing, Science and Finance, Amicus and now Unite the Union).[5][6] From 1981 to 1987 she was a member of the TUC General Council.[5]
She was created a Life Peer on 29 May 1985 taking the title Baroness Turner of Camden, of Camden in Greater London.[7] She had a particular interest in social welfare and pensions issues,[5] and from 1987 until October 1996 was Front Bench Spokesperson on Employment for the Labour Opposition.[6] She was Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords between 2002 and 2008.[5][8]
She was a member of the Equal Opportunities Commission 1982–88; the Occupational Pensions Board 1977–93; Council Member, Occupational Pensions Advisory Service, 1989–2007; and chair, Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman Council 1994–97. She was a ranking member of British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom.[8]
Her membership in the House ended on 13 June 2017.[9]
Personal life
Turner was vice-president of Humanists UK[10] and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.[11] On 15 September 2010, Turner, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.[12]
Turner died in Croydon, London, on 26 February 2018, at the age of 95 (though many sources, using her publicly reported birth year of 1927, gave her age as 90).[2][13][14]