Barbara Castle Barbara Castle Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, PC, GCOT ("née" Betts; 6 October 1910 – 3 May 2002) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Blackburn from 1945 to 1979, making her the longest-serving female MP in the history of the House of Commons until that record was broken in 2007 by Gwyneth Dunwoody. She later became the Member of the European Parliament for Greater Manchester from 1979 to 1989 and subsequently a member of the House of Lords, having been granted a life peerage in 1990. One of the most significant
SS Blackburn (1910) and twenty-nine passengers escaped in three lifeboats. The wreck was located five days later and found to be lying in three fathoms of water. It was marked with a buoy. SS Blackburn (1910) SS "Blackburn" was a passenger and cargo vessel built for the Great Central Railway in 1910. The ship was built by Earle's Shipbuilding of Hull and launched on 8 September 1910 by Miss Joyce Evelyn Barwick of Grimsby. She was one of an order for four ships, the others being , and . She was built with accommodation for 100 first-class, 10 second-class and 300 third-class passengers.