Betty Boothroyd
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Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd, OM, PC (born October 8, 1929 in Dewsbury, England), is a British politician and was the first female Speaker of the House of Commons.
Boothroyd was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, in 1929, to Archibald and Mary Boothroyd, textile workers. She was educated at council schools and went on to study at Dewsbury College of Commerce and Art. In the 1940s, she enjoyed a career as a dancer, as a member of the Tiller Girls dancing troupe in her younger years.
Boothroyd contested parliamentary seats at Leicester South East (1957) and Peterborough (1959) before travelling to the United States in 1960 to witness the Kennedy campaign. She subsequently began work in Washington as a legislative assistant for an American congressman, Silvio Conte, between 1960 and 1962. When she returned to London she continued her work as secretary and political assistant to various senior Labour politicians. In 1965 she was elected to a seat on Hammersmith Borough Council, where she remained until 1968.
She entered Parliament as Labour MP for West Bromwich in a by-election in 1973. Boothroyd's career then flourished. In 1974 she was appointed an assistant Government Whip and she was an MEP from 1975-1977. In 1979 she became a member of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, until 1981, and of the Speaker's Panel of Chairmen, until 1987. She was also a member of the Labour Party NEC from 1981-1987 and the House of Commons Commission from 1983-1987. She became a deputy Speaker in 1987. In 1992 she was elected Speaker, being the first woman ever to hold the position. She stepped down in 2000, and resigned as an MP, being succeeded by Michael Martin as Speaker.
In 2001 she was created a Life Peer, taking as her title Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell in the West Midlands. Her autobiography was published in 2001. In April 2005 she was appointed to the Order of Merit, an honour which is still in the personal gift of The Queen. Lady Boothroyd became Chancellor of the Open University in 1994 and has donated some of her personal papers to the University's archives. She never married or had children.
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