Jennie Adamson
British politician
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Janet Laurel Adamson (née Johnston;[1] 9 May 1882 – 25 April 1962) was a British Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1938 to 1946, and as a junior minister in Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government.
Janet Laurel Adamson | |
|---|---|
Adamson in 1945 | |
| Member of Parliament | |
| In office 7 November 1938 – 21 July 1946 | |
| Preceded by | Frank Clarke |
| Succeeded by | Ashley Bramall |
| Constituency | Dartford (1938–1945) Bexley (1945–1946) |
| Chair of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party | |
| In office 1935–1936 | |
| Preceded by | William Albert Robinson |
| Succeeded by | Hugh Dalton |
| Member of London County Council for Lambeth North | |
| In office 8 March 1928 – 5 March 1931 | |
| Preceded by | Richard Charles Powell |
| Succeeded by | Ida Samuel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Janet Laurel Johnston 9 May 1882 Kilmarnock, Scotland |
| Died | 25 April 1962 (aged 79) |
| Party | Labour |
| Spouse | William Murdoch Adamson (died 1945) |
Early life
Janet Laurel Johnston was born on 9 May 1882, the daughter of Thomas Johnston of Kirkcudbright, a railway porter, and his wife Elizabeth Denton, in a family of six children. Her father died young, and her mother became a dressmaker.[1][2][3] She had a secondary education, worked at dressmaking, and was employed as a teacher, and on factory work.[2][4]
After her marriage in 1902, the family had an itinerant period in the North of England and Midlands; her husband sought work, hampered by his activism. Jennie Adamson was a suffragist, in Manchester, and joined the Labour Party in 1908. In Lincoln, she joined the Board of Guardians and campaigned for child welfare.[4] In 1923, with William Adamson's election to parliament, the family moved to London.[2]
Political career
Adamson belonged to the Workers' Union in 1912, and was an organiser in the 1913 Black Country strike.[2] At the time of the 1926 General Strike she was on the Women's National Strike Committee.[5]
From 1928 to 1931, Adamson was a member of London County Council for Lambeth North. She served on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party from 1927 to 1947, which she chaired from 1935 to 1936.[1][3] In 1936, she chaired the Labour Party Conference.[6]
Adamson unsuccessfully contested Dartford at the 1935 general election, when the sitting Conservative MP Frank Clarke held the seat with a significantly reduced majority.[7] Clarke died in July 1938, however, and at the resulting by-election in November 1938, Adamson won the seat on a swing of 4.2%.[7] Jennie and William Adamson became the only husband and wife team in the House of Commons.[8]
The constituency was divided in boundary changes for the 1945 general election, when Adamson was elected with a large majority (27% of the votes) for the new Bexley constituency.[9] She served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary from 1940 to 1945 to Walter Womersley, at the Ministry of Pensions;[10] and as Parliamentary Secretary from 1945 to 1946 there, under Wilfred Paling as minister.[1]
Adamson resigned from Parliament in 1946, becoming Deputy Chair of the Unemployment Assistance Board from 1946 to 1953.[1] Her resignation precipitated a by-election in July 1946 which was narrowly won by the Labour candidate Ashley Bramall.[9] At the next general election, in 1950, the seat was won by future Prime Minister Edward Heath.
Death
Jennie Adamson died on 25 April 1962.[11]
Family
Jennie Johnston married in 1902 William Murdoch Adamson, a Transport and General Workers' Union official who became Labour MP for Cannock. They had two sons and two daughters.[1][2][3] Their younger son, Thomas Johnston Adamson, was killed in action with the RAF in March 1944.[12]
