Barbara Shenfield

Dame Barbara Estelle Shenfield ( Farrow, later Mrs Lewis; 9 March 1919 – 17 June 2004) was a British academic and Liberal Party politician. She was Chair of the Women's Royal Voluntary Service. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1986.

Background Born in Smethwick, Staffordshire to George and Jane Farrow, of Bearwood, she attended Langley High School, Worcester and the University of Birmingham, where she received Honors in Social and Political Science, graduating in three years.

In May 1941 she married Flt-Lt. Gwilym Ivor Lewis who was killed in action in August 1941. Their son, Peter, was born in 1942.

Professional career

During the war she worked in the Women's Land Army. After the war she worked as a University Lecturer in social studies at her alma mater, the University of Birmingham. In 1959, after a three-year break, she worked as a Lecturer at the Department of Economics and Social Studies, Bedford College, London University, until 1965.

She was a member of the Academic Council at the newly established University of Buckingham from 1972 to 1973. She was Visiting Professor in the United States: at Michigan State University in 1960 and Temple University (Philadelphia) in 1974, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Rockford College (Illinois) from 1969 to 1971 and again in 1974. She was Consultant at the US Department of Labor in 1964.

Political career She was Liberal candidate for the Handsworth division of Birmingham at the 1950 General Election. She had an uphill battle to win the seat as it had been Conservative for decades;

She continued her activity in the party and was elected a member of the Liberal Party national executive. She was also involved in party policy development being a joint author of the Liberal report The Aged and the Nation. She did not contest the 1950 General Election. She was Liberal candidate for the Walsall division of Staffordshire at the 1951 General Election;

She did not stand for parliament again. Due to the outbreak of war, the election did not take place. By 1945 he had switched to stand as Liberal candidate for Birmingham Edgbaston. Like her, he finished third;

The Shenfields had one son, Martin. Shenfield was a notable writer on economic and political affairs and had published the following works; 1962: British Made Abroad 1963: The Two Faces of the Common Market 1968: The Political Economy of Tax Avoidance (a lecture) 1970: The Ideological War Against Western Society 1971: The Roots of American Discontent 1972: Business and Consumerism 1977: The Rise of Trade Union Power in Britain 1977: From Campus to Capitol: The Cost of Intellectual Bankruptcy 1978: The Uses and Abuses of Eminent Domain 1980: The Failure of Socialism: Learning from the Swedes and English 1981: Myth and Reality in Economic Systems 1983: Myth and reality in anti-trust 1983: Icarus: Or the Fate of Democratic Socialism 1986: What Right to Strike? 1998: Limited Government, Individual Liberty and the Rule of Law