1. Gwyneth Patricia Dunwoody was a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament for Exeter from 1966 to 1970, and then for Crewe from February 1974 to her death in 2008.
32 Facts About Gwyneth Dunwoody
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Gwyneth Dunwoody was a moderate socialist and had a reputation as a fiercely independent parliamentarian, described as "intelligent, obstinate, opinionated and hard-working".
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Gwyneth Dunwoody belonged to an experienced political dynasty: her father, Welsh-born Morgan Phillips, was a former coalminer who served as General Secretary of the Labour Party between 1944 and 1962; her mother, Norah Phillips was a former member of London County Council who became a life peer in 1964, serving as a government whip in the House of Lords, and as Lord Lieutenant of Greater London from 1978 to 1986.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody attended the Fulham County Secondary School for Girls, now the Fulham Cross Girls' School, and the Notre Dame Convent in Battersea.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody left school aged 16, and became a journalist with a local newspaper in Fulham, covering births, marriages and deaths.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody joined the Labour Party in 1947, and spoke at the 1948 Labour party conference in Scarborough.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody worked as an actress in repertory and as a journalist in the Netherlands, learning fluent Dutch, before suffering a bout of tuberculosis.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody married John Dunwoody in 1954, the same year he qualified as a doctor.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody's husband became a general practitioner based in Totnes in Devon.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody's husband stood as Labour candidate in the safe Conservative seat of Tiverton in 1959, and came close to winning Plymouth Sutton in 1964, losing by just 410 votes.
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Meanwhile, Gwyneth Dunwoody was a councillor on Totnes Borough Council from 1963 to 1966.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody's husband was finally elected as Labour MP for Falmouth and Camborne in 1966.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Security from 1969 until 1970.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody stood as the Labour Party candidate for the Exeter seat in the 1964 general election.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody was elected as Member of Parliament for Exeter in 1966, emulating her husband in Falmouth and Camborne.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody returned to the House of Commons after the February 1974 general election, becoming MP for the safe Labour seat of Crewe, having received the sponsorship of the National Union of Railwaymen.
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In 1983, Gwyneth Dunwoody stood for election as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, alongside Peter Shore, on a Eurosceptic platform.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody did not return to ministerial office, but served as a front bench spokesman on, by turns, transport, health, and foreign affairs during the 18 years of Labour opposition from 1979 to 1997.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody served on the Labour National Executive Committee for seven years, from 1981 to 1988, collaborating closely with Betty Boothroyd.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody resisted the Militant group in her constituency and later opposed all-women shortlists.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody narrowly won the election in 1983 by 290 votes.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody remained MP at Crewe and Nantwich until her death in 2008, having benefited from a further redrawing of the boundaries in 1997 which increased her majority substantially.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody was President of Labour Friends of Israel from 1988 to 1993, and was a parliamentary consultant to the British Fur Federation.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody was one of 13 Labour MPs to vote against a reduction of the age of consent for homosexual acts to 16.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody had a house in her constituency, and a flat in the Barbican.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody suffered from financial problems in the late 1980s, with a house in her constituency being repossessed due to mortgage arrears, was threatened with eviction from her London flat, and had furniture seized by bailiffs to meet rent arrears.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody was sued by Barclays Bank due to an unpaid loan.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody died during the evening of 17 April 2008 in John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, following emergency heart surgery.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody's funeral was held at St Margaret's, Westminster on 8 May 2008.
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Gwyneth Dunwoody was survived by her daughter and two sons.
31.
Gwyneth Dunwoody lost the by-election and the Conservative candidate, Edward Timpson, became her mother's successor.
32.
In late September 2007, Gwyneth Dunwoody beat Irene Ward's record of the longest total service for a woman MP, at 37 years, 9 months.