Helen Bentwich

Helen Caroline Bentwich ( Franklin; 6 January 1892 – 26 April 1972) was a British philanthropist and politician.

Biography Helen Franklin (later Bentwich) was born in Notting Hill, London, into a prominent Jewish family. Her father, Arthur Ellis Franklin, was a merchant banker and her uncles Herbert and Stuart Samuel were leading politicians. Her siblings included Hugh Franklin, a suffragist, and Ellis Arthur Franklin, another banker and eventual vice-principal of the Working Men's College.

She attended St Paul's Girls' School and Bedford College, London.

Her nephew, lawyer Benedict Birnberg, wrote a letter to The Guardian stating that she "never acquired a handle and always cold-shouldered Zionism."

In the 1930s she was active in the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany, and was later involved in helping Ethiopian Jews (then called Falashas).

Political career Soon after her arrival, Helen joined the Labour Party and ran for Parliament at a by-election in Dulwich (1932) and in Harrow in the 1935 general election, but lost both times. However, in the spring of 1934 she was invited by Eveline Lowe to become a co-opted member of the London County Council education committee, and in 1937 she was elected a member of the council for North Kensington.

In 1946, she was elected for Bethnal Green North East and from 1955 to 1965 she was a member for Stoke Newington and Hackney North. She became chairman of the education committee in 1947, alderman in 1949, vice-chair in 1950, and chairman of the council from 1956 to 1957. In the 1965 New Year Honours she was appointed CBE for "political and public services in North London".

Personal life She married barrister Norman Bentwich in 1915. She followed him to Cairo shortly after their wedding. In 1931, the couple returned to England. They had homes in Hampstead and Sandwich, Kent, as well as a home in Jerusalem, where her husband was a Hebrew University professor.