Lee (of Asheridge), Jennie Lee, Baroness 1904-88
Scottish Labour politician

Born in Lochgelly, Fife, the daughter of a miner, she graduated from Edinburgh University with degrees in education and law, and at the age of 24, as a Labour MP for North Lanark, became the youngest member of the House of Commons. An ardent socialist, she campaigned with great wit and intelligence. In 1934 she married Aneurin Bevan and, despite her feminist principles, consciously stepped to one side as he rose within the Labour Party. Appointed Great Britain's first Arts Minister in 1964, she doubled government funding for the arts and was instrumental in setting up the Open University. She published two autobiographies, Tomorrow is a New Day (1939) and My Life with Nye (1980). She retired from the Commons in 1970 and was made a life peer.