Here’s the story of Florence Paton, an influential woman and politician whose contribution to women’s health and the teaching of SEN children is recognised at the Garden For The Blind on Carlton Hill.
Born Florence Widdowson in 1891 at Somerset, she moved to Wolverhampton where she became a schoolteacher and also a Methodist lay preacher.
Florence was initially a Liberal Party member but joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1917. She stood for parliament in Cheltenham in 1928 and then Rushcliffe in 1929. both unsuccessfully.
In 1932 when the ILP and Labour Party split she initially stayed in the ILP but joined the Labour Party in 1933.
In 1930 she married John Paton, himself also a future Labour MP and in 1945 she won the Rushcliffe seat to become the first woman MP in Nottinghamshire. At the time, the Rushcliffe constituency included Gedling Carlton and Colwick.
She held her surgeries in People’s Hall on Heathcote Street and had a particular interest in working conditions, women’s health and the education of children with special educational needs.
In 1946 she was one of 53 MPs who voted in opposition to conscription being retained during peacetime.
In February 1947 she raised issues about the treatment of women prisoners in Holloway Prison, having been involved in a campaign for improvement of conditions in Holloway along with fellow MP Barbara Ayrton Gould. The campaign had been set up in 1945 by Cicely Craven, Margery Fry and Theodora Calvert.
In November 1947 she spoke in favour of the abolition of the death penalty and was jubilant when it was suspended for five years in April 1948. She was also the British delegate to the
United Nations in 1947. In parliament, she was on the panel of members able to chair parliament and committees and on 31 May 1948 she became the first woman to preside over the whole House of Commons, though she didn’t sit in the Speaker’s chair as when the House is in committee, the chairman sits at the table, rather than in the speaker’s chair.
After boundary changes in 1950, she stood unsuccessfully in Carlton and from 1955 she was a member of the Royal Commission on common land.
Florence died in Wolverhampton on 12th October 1976.
A sculpture by Hilary Cartmel was installed in Carlton Hill Garden for the Blind in 2019 and a commemorative booklet produced.
Credit: https://nottinghamwomenshistory.org.uk/
