Susan
Lawrence, the daughter of Nathaniel
Lawrence, a wealthy solicitor, and Laura Bacon, was born in London
in 1871. After being educated at Newnham College,
Cambridge, she worked as a school manager. In 1900 she was elected
to the London School Board and four years later, was co-opted to the
education committee of the London County Council.
Lawrence was originally a supporter of the Conservative
Party but under the influence of Beatrice
Webb and Sidney Webb, she joined the
Fabian Society (1911) and the Labour
Party (1912).
After meeting Mary Macarthur, Lawrence
joined the Women's Trade Union League and spent the next ten years
working for the cause. Despite her monocle and aristocratic manner,
Lawrence gradually won over working women in London.
As well as helping to organize women workers, Lawrence co-wrote two
books on the subject, Women in the Engineering
Trades (1917) and Labour Women
and International Legislation (1919).
As a member of the Poplar Borough Council, Lawrence joined George
Lansbury and his campaign against the working of the Poor Law.
After refusing to collect the Poor Law Rate, Lawrence was imprisoned
for five weeks in Holloway Prison.
In the 1923 General Election, Lawrence became
Labour MP for East Ham North. Soon afterwards she was appointed Parliamentary
Private Secretary to the President of the Board of Education. Defeated
the the 1924 General Election, Lawrence returned
to the House of Commons in 1926.
When Ramsay MacDonald formed a Labour
Government after the 1929 General Election,
Lawrence became Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health.
In this post she helped guide the Widows, Orphans and Old Age Pensions
Bill through Parliament. Unwilling to support MacDonald's National
Government, Lawrence, like most Labour MPs, lost her seat in the 1931
General Election.
Although she failed to become MP again, she continued to work for
the Labour Party. In her later years Lawrence
was heavily involved in voluntary work for the blind. Susan Lawrence
died on 25th October 1947.
Woman
MPs in October 1924. Left to right, Dorothy
Jewson,
Susan
Lawrence,
Nancy
Astor,
Margaret
Winteringham,
Katharine
Stewart-Murray, Mabel
Philipson,
Vera
Terrington and
Margaret
Bondfield.
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