Alice Bacon, Baroness Bacon

Alice Martha Bacon, Baroness Bacon, (10 September 1909 – 24 March 1993) was a British Labour Party politician. She served as a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1970, was appointed to the Privy Council in 1966 and was Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science.

Early life and education Alice Martha Bacon was born on 10 September 1909 in Normanton, West Yorkshire.

Bacon's father was secretary of the Whitwood branch of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the family joined in local campaigns to alleviate poverty. She was educated at Normanton Girls' High School and Stockwell Teachers' Training College, before becoming a schoolteacher. and she joined the Labour Party around the same time. In 1935, she became as Labour's League of Youth delegate to the Socialist Youth International Conference. Bacon was active in the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and became president of its West Yorkshire division in 1944.

Bacon focused on pay and workplace conditions, education and housing in Parliament. She spoke of her hopes to "abolish poverty, but also the feeling of pauperism" in a speech on the 1947 National Assistance Bill. She was an early proponent of abolishing the death penalty and introduced a Bill in 1956 against capital punishment.

When constituency boundaries were revised for the 1955 general election, Bacon transferred from Leeds North East to Leeds South East constituency and served it as MP until she retired in 1970.

Bacon died on 24 March 1993, aged 83.

Remembrances

The Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves published Alice in Westminster: The Political Life of Alice Bacon in 2019 (I.B. Tauris). Reeves writes of Bacon that she "was a pioneer in the world of education and politics whose success was founded on her determination to stay true to her working-class roots and the people she came into politics to serve", and that her commitment to comprehensive education was especially praiseworthy.

In 2018, the 4.3% pale ale "Baroness Bacon Beer" was served on tap at Strangers' Bar in the Palace of Westminster for a week.

Bacon's name is one of those featured on the sculpture Ribbons, unveiled in 2024.