Dorothy Jewson

Who was Dorothy Jewson?

Dorothy Jewson was a British teacher, trade union organiser, Labour Party politician, and one of her party's first female Members of Parliament.

The daughter of Alderman George Jewson, a prosperous coal merchant, Jewson was born in Norwich and was educated at Norwich High School for Girls and Girton College, Cambridge, before becoming a teacher. With her brother, she carried out a large-scale investigation into poverty in the city. It was published as The Destitute of Norwich.

As a pacifist she opposed the First World War.

At the 1923 general election, she was elected as Member of Parliament for Norwich, one of four women to be elected as Labour MPs at that election. However, she lost her seat at the 1924 general election, and never returned to Parliament.

From 1927 to 1936, she was a member of Norwich City Council. In 1936 she married firstly R. Tanner Smith, who died in 1939. She married secondly, in 1945, Campbell Stephen, member of parliament for Glasgow Camlachie. He died in 1947.