Ruth Deech, Baroness Deech

{{Short description|British academic, lawyer, bioethicist and politician (born 1943)}}

{{infobox officeholder

|honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable

|name = The Baroness Deech

|honorific_suffix = DBE

|image = Official portrait of Baroness Deech crop 2, 2022.jpg

|caption = Official portrait, 2022

|birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1943|04|29|df=y}}

|birth_name = Ruth Lynn Deech

|birth_place = Clapham, London, England

|alma_mater = St Anne's College, Oxford

|profession = {{hlist|Academic|Lawyer|Bioethicist}}

|occupation = Politician

|office = Chair of the House of Lords Appointments Commission

|term_start = 26 October 2023

|term_end =

|predecessor = The Lord Bew

|successor =

|office1 = Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford

|term_start1 = 1991

|term_end1 = 2004

|predecessor1 = Claire Palley

|successor1 = Tim Gardam

|office2 = Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal

|term_start2 = 25 October 2005
Life Peerage

}}

Ruth Lynn Deech, Baroness Deech, DBE (née Fraenkel; born 29 April 1943) is a British academic,{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26320941|title= Plea for end to 'discriminatory' titles for wives of lords and knights|newspaper=BBC News|accessdate=20 November 2014|date= 24 February 2014}} lawyer, bioethicist and politician, most noted for chairing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), from 1994 to 2002, and as the former Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford. Deech sits as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords (2005–) and chaired the Bar Standards Board (2009–2014).

Early life, family and education

Born in Clapham, London, Deech is the daughter of a historian and journalist, Josef Fraenkel who was born in 1903 in Ustrzyki Dolne in south-east Poland. She states that she comes from a "very culturally Jewish family". Her father "was born in Poland and fled, first to Vienna and then Prague, from the Nazis".{{cite news|url=https://www.jewishtelegraph.com/prof_383.html|title= Profile: Daughter of a Refugee Rose to be Head of an Oxford College |first1=Simon|last1=Yaffe |work=Jewish Telegraph|accessdate= 29 May 2019}} He arrived in Britain on 3 September 1939, the day the Allies declared war on Germany. Documents show that he travelled first from Poland to Nazi Germany (Vienna, Prague) and arrived in Great Britain on 3 September 1939. Several other members of their family were murdered in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Her first cousin is Maurice Frankel, Director of the UK Campaign for Freedom of Information.

She was educated at Christ's Hospital school, when the girls part of the school was located in Hertford.{{cite web|title=Baroness Ruth Deech at Christ's Hospital|url=http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/baroness-ruth-deech-at-christ-s-hospital-1-6321451|website= wscountytimes.co.uk|date=26 September 2014 |accessdate=12 October 2017|language=en}}{{cite web|title=Desperate to have a baby? This is the woman who matters|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/desperate-to-have-a-baby-this-is-the-woman-who-matters-5597264.html|website=The Independent|accessdate=12 October 2017|date=6 October 1996}} She graduated from St Anne's College, Oxford with a first in Law in 1965.

Career

File:StAnne'sRuthDeechBuilding.jpg

Deech returned to St Anne's College, Oxford, in 1970 to be a tutorial fellow in Law, a post she retained until 1991 when she was elected principal of the college. She retired in 2004, and was succeeded by Tim Gardam. The college named the Ruth Deech Building, which was completed in 2005, after her.{{cite web|title=St Anne's Buildings)|url=http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/about/places/buildings-and-grounds| website= st-annes.ox.ac.uk|accessdate=17 December 2018}}

Deech held many other positions during her career; she served as Senior Proctor of the University of Oxford between 1985 and 1986, as a member of the University's Hebdomadal Council of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority from 1994 until 2002, and was appointed to a four-year term as a Governor{{cite web| url= http://www.bbcgovernors.co.uk/about/ruthdeech.html | title= Ruth Deech| website= bbcgovernors.co.uk| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20060207143652/http://www.bbcgovernors.co.uk/about/ruthdeech.html |archivedate= 7 February 2006}} of the BBC in 2002, the same year that she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), in recognition of her work at the HFEA.{{London Gazette|issue=56595|date=15 June 2002|page=7|supp=y}}

After leaving St. Anne's, Deech was appointed the first Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education from 2004 to 2008, dealing with the resolution of student complaints at all UK universities.{{cite news| url= https://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/nov/25/highereducation.highereducationprofile|title= Ruth Deech profile| newspaper= The Guardian|accessdate=20 November 2014|date= 25 November 2003}}

On 22 July 2005, it was announced by the House of Lords Appointments Commission that she would be made a life peer, sitting as a crossbencher.{{cite web| url= http://www.lordsappointments.gov.uk/news/july2005.aspx| date= February 11, 2008| title= House of Lords Appointments Commission – New Non–Party–Political Peers| url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20080724222653/http://www.lordsappointments.gov.uk/news/july2005.aspx |archivedate= 24 July 2008 |access-date= 21 May 2019}} On 5 October 2005, she was created Baroness Deech, of Cumnor in the County of Oxfordshire,{{cite news |title=State |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/57780 |access-date=20 August 2023 |work=The London Gazette |date=10 October 2005}} and introduced in the House of Lords on 25 October 2005.{{cite web| url= https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/minutes/051025/ldminute.htm|title=House of Lords - Minute| website= parliament.uk|accessdate=20 November 2014}} She delivered her maiden speech on 24 November 2005.{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldhansrd/vo051124/text/51124-06.htm#51124-06_spnew0| title= Lords Hansard text for 24 Nov 2005 (51124-06)| website= parliament.uk|accessdate=20 November 2014}}

In 1999, The Observer newspaper named her as the 107th most powerful person in Britain, and in 2001, Deech was placed at no.26 in Channel 4's "The God List", which ranked "the fifty people of faith in Britain who exercise the most power and influence over our lives".{{cite web| url= http://www.fulcrumtv.com/program.php?id=96&cat=factual&subcat=current%20affairs&year=2004&pagedesc=2| title= The God List| website= fulcrumtv.com| url-status= dead| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070927223301/http://www.fulcrumtv.com/program.php?id=96&cat=factual&subcat=current%20affairs&year=2004&pagedesc=2 |archivedate= 27 September 2007 |access-date= May 21, 2019}} In November 2007, Deech published IVF to Immortality: Controversy in the Era of Reproductive Technology, with co-author Anna Smajdor.{{cite web|url=http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199219797| archive-url= https://archive.today/20120905150703/http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199219797|url-status= dead| archive-date= 5 September 2012|title= From IVF to Immortality: Controversy in the Era of Reproductive Technology: Ruth Deech and Anna Smajdor |website= oup.com| publisher= Oxford University Press| accessdate=20 November 2014}}

Between 2004 and 2008, Deech was Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education and a Professor of Law at Gresham College in London,{{cite web| url= http://www.gresham.ac.uk/professors.asp?PageId=5| url-status= dead| title= Professors| publisher= Gresham College| website= Gresham.ac.uk| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20100209115525/http://www.gresham.ac.uk/professors.asp?PageId=5| archivedate= 9 February 2010| accessdate= 21 May 2019}} where she gave a series of public lectures on family relationships and the law. Deech was also the Chair of the Bar Standards Board between 2009-2015.{{cite web |title=BSB reappoints Baroness Ruth Deech as Chair |url=https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/resources/bsb-reappoints-baroness-ruth-deech-as-chair.html |publisher=Bar Standards Board |access-date=7 August 2023}}

Deech has been a Director of JNF-UK{{cite web |url=https://oxford-union.org/event/holocaust-panel/ |title=Holocaust Memorial: Constructive Commemoration |publisher=Oxford Union |date=27 January 2022 |accessdate=17 April 2022}}

In December 2016 Deech argued that Jewish students at UK universities were subject to increasing anti-Semitism.{{cite news|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/12/22/britains-top-universities-becoming-no-go-zones-jews-baroness/ |title= Some of Britain's top universities are becoming no-go zones for Jews, Baroness Deech claims |first= Camilla| last= Turner| date=22 December 2016| newspaper= The Telegraph| access-date= 21 May 2019}} She is a Patron of the activist group UK Lawyers for Israel.{{Cite news|title=About us|language=en-US|work=UK Lawyers for Israel|url=https://www.uklfi.com/about-us-2/our-patrons-2|access-date=2017-03-07}}

In June 2020, Baroness Deech accused Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick of breaching "the guidance on planning propriety" over his management of a planning application to build a national Holocaust memorial, which she described as controversial.{{Cite news |last=Das |first=Shanti |date=21 June 2020 |title=Robert Jenrick 'breached planning propriety' over Holocaust memorial site |work=The Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/robert-jenrick-breached-planning-propriety-over-holocaust-memorial-site-d66pq7bpz |access-date=26 June 2020}}

In October 2023, she was announced as Chair of the House of Lords Appointments Commission for a five-year term.{{cite web |title=Baroness Deech endorsed as Chair of the House of Lords Appointments Commission |url=https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/327/public-administration-and-constitutional-affairs-committee/news/198124/baroness-deech-endorsed-as-chair-of-the-house-of-lords-appointments-commission/ |website=Parliament UK |access-date=5 November 2023}}

Returned family property

In 2008, it emerged that Eugeniusz Waniek, a 101-year-old Polish artist and art professor living in Kraków, had in his possession a set of silver cutlery which had once belonged to Deech's father's family, the Fraenkels.{{cite web| url= http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1532|title=A Remarkable Restitution| first= Anna |last= Spysz| date= 2 September 2009|work= Krakow Post |accessdate= 20 November 2014}} Waniek had been a Polish Christian neighbour and friend of the Fraenkels in pre-war Ustrzyki Dolne, a small town near the Polish/Ukrainian border. Deech's grandfather, Moses Fraenkel, owned an oil refinery there had been a long-serving mayor of the town.

Nazi German troops raided Ustrzyki Dolne in September 1942, rounding up the town's large Jewish population. Deech's aunt, Helena Fraenkel, managed to pass a bundle of the silverware to Waniek for safekeeping, risking her life in doing so. Other Jews in the town were shot for refusing to hand over valuables to Nazis. Helena was murdered in the Belzec extermination camp. Waniek looked after the silver, at one stage burying it in his garden to hide it from the Nazis, which would have also been punishable by death. He never saw the Fraenkels again.

The story was uncovered by a neighbour of Waniek's, Marek Marko, and historian Professor Norman Davies in 2008. When Deech and her British family visited Waniek, he presented to them the silverware (and the tablecloth that bundled it){{cite web| url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8201282.stm|title= Long quest for Polish restitution |work= BBC Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent| date= 15 August 2009|accessdate=20 November 2014}} that he had kept in a drawer for 67 years. He died 8 months later, aged 102.{{cite web| url= https://www.thejc.com/news/world/deech-reclaims-her-family-silver-1.5463 |first= Anshel |last= Pfeffer| date= October 10, 2008 |title= Deech reclaims her family silver| work= Jewish Chronicle| via= thejc.com| accessdate= 21 May 2019}}

Deech has criticized Poland regarding its policy for compensation of goods stolen during German occupation. In May 2019, Deech claimed during a House of Lords debate that Poland is “squatting on property of 3 million Shoah victims” and that it was the "most egregious offender” when it came to returning Nazi loot”.{{cite Hansard |jurisdiction=Parliament of the United Kingdom |title=Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) (Amendment) Bill |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2019-05-09/debates/7215AD06-5DFE-4F6C-85F3-C7FDE98F7382/Holocaust(ReturnOfCulturalObjects)(Amendment)Bill# |house=House of Lords |date=9 May 2019 |column=1384}}{{cite web| author= Jewish News Reporter| url= https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/jewish-peer-claims-poland-is-squatting-on-property-of-3-million-shoah-victims/ |title=Jewish peer claims Poland is 'squatting on property of 3 million' Shoah victims|website= Jewish News| date= 13 May 2019 | via= jewishnews.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-18}}

References

External links

[https://archive.today/20120905150703/http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199219797 IVF to Immortality: Controversy in the Era of Reproductive Technology] by Ruth Deech and Anna Smajdor, Oxford University Press, November 2007
[http://www.oiahe.org.uk Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA)]
[http://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk UK Bar Standards Board]

{{succession box

| before=Claire Palley

| title=Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford

| years=1991—2004

| after=Tim Gardam

}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chairwoman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission|years=2023–present}}

Category:1943 births

Category:Living people

Category:Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford

Category:Fellows of St Anne's College, Oxford

Category:Principals of St Anne's College, Oxford