Peggy Jay

Margaret Christian "Peggy" Jay, Baroness Jay (née Garnett; 4 January 1913 – 21 January 2008) was an English Labour councillor.

Education and professional life

As a young girl, Garnett attended St Paul's Girls' School in London, where she befriended Shiela Grant Duff. She studied economics at Somerville College, Oxford, from 1931 to 1933, when she married Douglas Jay, who had tutored her in preparation for her Oxford University entrance exams.[1] Joining the Labour Party, she was recruited by Herbert Morrison to be a candidate for the London County Council (LCC); from 1934, she represented Hackney South, then Battersea South, and finally Battersea North. Later, she was elected to the new Greater London Council before losing her Wandsworth seat in 1967.[2] She remained involved in local politics, as chair of the Heath and Old Hampstead Society from 1967 to 1989, and president from 1993 to 2004, work she described as "the most worthwhile and satisfying in my life."[3] On her death, she was described by a local newspaper as the "uncrowned queen of Hampstead".[4]

She left the Labour Party in 1981 for the newly formed Social Democratic Party, rejoining only after Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.[1] She was the last survivor of the "Hampstead middle-class Labour grandes dames" whom Morrison had groomed to take over the LCC.[5]

Family

She married politician Douglas Jay in 1933, aged 20. They had four children, but the marriage ended in divorce. A son, Peter Jay, is a journalist, leading economist and a former British Ambassador to the United States. Peter Jay was married Margaret Callaghan, the daughter of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party Jim Callaghan, who went onto become Leader of the House of Lords and Minister for Women and Equalities under Tony Blair. Their twin daughters, Helen and Catherine, achieved a fashionable profile in the 1960s.[6] At one time her son-in-law, married to Helen, was Rupert Pennant-Rea, a former deputy Governor of the Bank of England.[6][5]

Her niece is Virginia Bottomley, Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, a Conservative politician and life peer.[7] Her nephew is Lord Hunt of Chesterton, and her great-nephew is Tristram Hunt, former Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central and Shadow Secretary of State for Education, and now Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.[8]

References
  1. "Jay, Douglas Patrick Thomas, Baron Jay". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60481. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. "Peggy Jay". The Times. 23 January 2008. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  3. "Peggy Jay: A tribute" (PDF). The Heath & Hampstead Society. May 2008. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  4. "Thank you Peggy, for keeping Hampstead such a special place". Ham & High. 24 January 2008. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  5. Harrington, Illtyd (22 January 2008). "Peggy Jay". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  6. "Peggy Jay: Long-serving Labour member of the London County Council and guardian of Hampstead and its heath". The Independent. 29 January 2008. Archived from the original on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  7. "Peggy Jay". The Daily Telegraph. 23 January 2008. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  8. Stewart, Heather (13 January 2017). "Tristram Hunt to quit as MP to become V&A director". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
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