15 Facts About Dehra Parker

Dehra Parker's father, a native of Kilrea, County Londonderry, was a successful financier.

Dehra Parker was educated in the United States, where her father held extensive property holdings, and in Germany.

Dame Dehra Parker was first elected as a Member of Parliament for Londonderry, as Dehra Parker Chichester, in the 1921 Northern Ireland general election.

Dehra Parker stood down at the 1929 election just before her second marriage but was elected unopposed as Dehra Parker in the 15 March 1933 by-election for the South Londonderry constituency following the death of her son-in-law James Lenox-Conyngham Chichester-Clark, and served until her resignation on 15 June 1960.

Dehra Parker later served as the fifth Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1971.

Dehra Parker was a Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education from 1 December 1937 to 15 March 1944.

Dehra Parker was Chair of the Northern Ireland General Health Services Board from 1948 to 1949.

Dehra Parker served as Minister of Health and Local Government from 26 August 1949 to 13 March 1957 and became a member of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland in 1949, which entitled her to the style The Right Honourable.

Dehra Parker was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1949 Birthday honours "for public services", having previously been appointed as an OBE, and was advanced to be a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1957.

Dehra Parker was the first and only woman to serve in the Northern Ireland Cabinet.

Outside of parliamentary activities, Dame Dehra Parker was a long-serving local councillor on Magherafelt Rural District Council, president of both the Northern Ireland Physical Training Association and the Girls' Training Corps, and chairman of the Ancient Monuments Advisory Committee.

In 1944, Dehra Parker was appointed senior vice-chairman of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, and in 1949 she succeeded Sir David Lindsay Keir as President for CEMA, a position she held until 1960.

Dehra Parker was made an honorary member of the Ulster Society of Women Artists in 1958.

Dehra Parker died at her home, Shanemullagh House, Castledawson, in the south of County Londonderry, on 28 November 1963, at age 81.

Dehra Parker was interred two days later in the grounds of Christ Church, Castledawson.