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
Alma Birk, Baroness Birk from 1984 to 1990. She married Ellis Birk(1915-2003), a solicitor, senior partner of City of London law firm Nicholson, Graham & Jones (now merged into K & L Gates LLP) who was also a director of the Daily Mirror Group, Reed International, Central TV, and Wilson Bros (originally set up by Baroness Birk’s family) and other companies. They had two children. Alma Birk, Baroness Birk Alma Lillian Birk, Baroness Birk (née Wilson; 22 September 1917 – 29 December 1996) was a British journalist, Labour Party politician and Government minister. Birk was educated at South Hampstead High School and at the