Jean Mann

Jean Mann
JP
Member of Parliament
for Coatbridge
In office
5 July 1945 – 22 February 1959
Prime Minister Clement Attlee
Preceded by James Barr
Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born Jean Stewart
1889 (1889)
Died 21 March 1964(1964-03-21) (aged 74–75)
Political party Labour
Children Five

Jean Mann JP (née Stewart; 1889 – 21 March 1964) was a Scottish Labour Party politician and a campaigner for better housing and planning.

Early life

Mann was educated at Bellahouston Academy in Glasgow and became an accountant. Married with five children, she was a councillor on Glasgow Corporation from 1931 to 1938, where she served as Housing convenor. She became Vice President of the Scottish Branch of the Housing and Town Planning Association, and was a senior magistrate in Glasgow.

In September 1941, the Scottish Branch of the Housing and Town Planning Association organised a conference in Largs to draw attention to the Scottish evidence to the Barlow Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Population (1940). The conference papers and proceedings were afterwards published in a book titled Replanning Scotland which was edited by Jean Mann.[1]

She unsuccessfully contested the Renfrewshire West constituency at the 1931 general election and again in 1935.

Parliamentary career

In the Labour landslide at the 1945 general election, Mann was elected as Member of Parliament for Coatbridge.

After she had taken the oath, it was realised that her position on the Rent Tribunals under the Rent of Furnished Houses Control (Scotland) Act 1943 was remunerated and that she therefore might hold an 'office of profit under the Crown' which would disqualify her from election. A Select Committee was established [2] which reported that her election was invalid; a Bill[3] was rushed through validating it and indemnifying her from the consequences of acting as an MP while disqualified[4].

When the Coatbridge constituency was abolished for the 1950 general election, she was returned for the new Coatbridge and Airdrie constituency, holding the seat until she retired at the 1959 general election. Mann was a member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee from 1953 to 1958.

Her memoir, Woman in Parliament, recalled the difficulties facing women MPs and their efforts to improve legislation for women and families.

Bibliography

  • Mann, Jean (Ed.) (1941), Replanning Scotland, Town and Country Planning Association (Scotland).
  • Mann, Jean (1962). Woman in Parliament. London: Oldhams Press.

References

  1. ↑ Rosenburg, Lou (2016), Scotland's Homes Fit for Heroes: Garden City Influences on the Development of Working Class Housing 1900 to 1939, The Word Bank, Edinburgh, pp. 234-236
  2. ↑ HC Deb 17 August 1945 vol 413 cc272-3
  3. ↑ The Coatbridge and Springburn Elections (Validation) Bill
  4. ↑ The Coatbridge and Springburn Elections (Validation) Act 1945, (9 & 10 George 6.) 3.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
James Barr		 Member of Parliament for Coatbridge
1945–1950		 Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Coatbridge and Airdrie
1950–1959		 Succeeded by
James Dempsey
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