The Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton | |
---|---|
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
In office 29 September 1994 – 30 March 2018 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Josephine Cayless 29 June 1940 Loughborough, England |
Died | 30 March 2018 London, England | (aged 77)
Political party | Labour |
Spouse |
Michael Farrington (
m. 1960) |
Children | 3 |
Josephine Farrington, Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (née Cayless; 29 June 1940 – 30 March 2018) [1] was a British Labour Party politician, active in local government internationally before her elevation to the Lords in 1994.
Josephine Cayless was born in Loughborough in 1940. [2] She worked as a teacher, even though she had left school at age sixteen. [2]
She was a Preston Borough Councillor from 1973 to 1976. [2] In 1977, she was elected to Lancashire County Council and held several senior positions, including chair of the Education Committee. [3] From 1981 to 1994 she was a Member of the Council of Europe Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities and of its successor the Congress of the Council of Europe. [3] She acted as an international observer at local elections in Poland, Ukraine and Albania. [3] She was also a Member of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union and was Chairman of Education and Training in 1994. [3]
Farrington was the Labour candidate at the 1983 general election for the constituency of West Lancashire and stood for the party again at the 1991 Ribble Valley by-election. [4] On 29 September 1994, she was created a life peer as Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton, of Fulwood in the County of Lancashire. [3] [5] She was a government spokesperson in the Lords for several issues between 1997 and 2010. [3]
Cayless married Michael Farrington in 1960; the couple had three sons. [2] She died from lung cancer at her residence in Dolphin Square, London, on 30 March 2018, at the age of 77. [2]