Patricia Ford

Patricia Ford, Lady Fisher ( Smiles; 5 April 1921 – 23 May 1995), was briefly an Ulster Unionist Party politician in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. She was the first woman Member of Parliament from Northern Ireland, and the second woman to be returned to a seat in Westminster from a constituency on the island of Ireland (the first to take her seat).

Early life She was born at Donaghadee, County Down, and was educated at Bangor Collegiate School; Glendower Preparatory School, London; and abroad. Her father was Sir Walter D. Smiles, an Ulster Unionist MP, and her mother was Margaret Heigway. The four policiticians arrived together in a horse drawn carriage decorated in suffragette colours.

She retired at the 1955 general election. In 1972, she founded and was co-chairman of the Women Caring Trust (subsequently renamed Hope for Youth Northern Ireland). She was expelled from the Ladies Orange Benevolent Association (L.O.B.A.) for attending a wedding at the Brompton Oratory.

Personal life In 1941, she married cricketer Neville Montagu Ford, son of the Very Rev. Lionel George Bridges Justice Ford and grandson of the 4th Lord Lyttelton. They had two daughters: Sarah, who married Sir Michael Grylls and whose son is explorer Bear Grylls, and Mary Rose, who is married and has two daughters.

Patricia Ford was divorced from her first husband, and in 1956 married Nigel Fisher MP, thereby becoming stepmother to Mark Fisher, who was later elected a Labour MP. She acquired the title of Lady Fisher when her husband was knighted in 1974.