Dora Gaitskell, Baroness Gaitskell
{{Short description|Labour Party politician and life peer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
|name = The Baroness Gaitskell
|honorific-suffix =
|image = Dora Gaitskell 1955.jpg
|caption =
|birth_date = {{birth date|1901|4|25|df=yes}}
|birth_place = Latvia, Russian Empire
|death_date = {{death date and age|1989|7|1|1901|4|25|df=yes}}
|death_place = London, England
|office = Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
|term_start = 23 January 1964
|term_end = 1 July 1989
Life Peerage
|party = Labour Party
|spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Isaac Frost|1921|1937|end=divorce}}
- {{marriage|Hugh Gaitskell|1937|1963|end=his death}}
}}
|children = 3
|parents =
|nationality =
|alma_mater =
|birth_name = Anna Dora Creditor
}}
Anna Dora Gaitskell, Baroness Gaitskell (née Creditor; formerly Frost; 25 April 1901 – 1 July 1989) was a British Labour Party politician{{Cite web |url=http://www.qub.ac.uk/cawp/UK%20bios/UK_bios_peers2.htm#gaitskell |title=Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics |accessdate=15 March 2013}} and the wife of Hugh Gaitskell, who led the Labour Party in 1955–1963.
Early life
She was born Anna Dora Creditor near Riga, Latvia, then part of Russia, the eldest of four sisters and a brother. Her father, Leon Creditor was a Hebrew scholar and writer. They emigrated to Britain in 1903 or soon after, arriving in Stepney, London. She was educated at Coborn High School for Girls in Bow, east London.[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39851 William Rodgers: Gaitskell , (Anna) Dora, Baroness Gaitskell (1901–1989) rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 17 March 2013] She abandoned a career in medicine to marry Isaac Frost, a lecturer in physiology, on 15 March 1921. They had a son, Raymond, in 1925, but divorced in 1937.
Political career
She had joined the Labour Party at the age of 16. She met Hugh Gaitskell in Fitzrovia, London. Gaitskell had taken a teaching post at University College London. They married at Hampstead Town Hall on 9 April 1937. They had two daughters Julia, 1939, and Cressida, 1942.
She was a delegate at the UN General Assembly and member of the All Party Committee for Human Rights from 1977 to 1989. She was also Trustee of the Anglo-German Federation. She remained loyal to the Labour Party when most of her husband's supporters left to form the Social Democratic Party in 1981.
On 23 January 1964, she was made a life peer with the title Baroness Gaitskell, of Egremont in the County of Cumberland.{{London Gazette |issue=43228 |date=24 January 1964 |page=739}} Two years later she received an honorary degree as Doctor of Law from the University of Leeds.
She outlived Hugh Gaitskell by 26 years after his death in January 1963, living until July 1989 and the age of 88. She died at the Gaitskell home, 18 Frognal Gardens, Hampstead.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Hugh Gaitskell|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaitskell, Dora}}
Category:Jewish British politicians
Category:Labour Party (UK) life peers
Category:Place of birth missing
Category:Place of death missing
Category:Latvian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom
Category:Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II
Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II
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